Greek Press

PHILELEFTHEROS: “To the mercy of chance”. There will be repercussions from the government’s attempts to cover up weaknesses in the Civil Aviation Department, the paper said. New documents brought to light confirm that such weaknesses exist. So also does the testimony by the official in charge of licensing Charalambos Hadjigeorgiou, which strengthens the evidence. The paper said that another two officials at the department had reported and warned that there were deficiencies in the system but nothing had been done except to cover up the problems by way of a solution.

POLITIS: “Open the prison”. The paper said it was revealing details of a letter sent by civil aviation whistleblower Charalambos Hadjigeorgiou, that he sent to Communication and Works Minister Haris Thrasou last November. He said that Thrasou and other people were living in another world when it came to what was going on in the department, and that there were people who should be in prison because of their actions. Hadjigeorgiou said there were illegalities even from the heads of the department in addition to the presentation of fictitious complimentary documents purporting to be from the Joint Aviation Authority. There were also people in the department promoting Helios, while waging a verbal war against Cyprus Airways and Eurocypria, it said.

HARAVGHI: “First results today”. The result of investigations in Germany into the recovered pieces of the doomed Helios Boeing 737 have been handed over to the Greek investigators into the crash. The investigation centered on the plane’s flight deck, the paper said. Although some of the parts were burned as a result of the fire that broke out after the crash, it is hoped the results will help solve the mystery of what happened.

SIMERINI: “Thrasou knew the mess that was the CAA”. Communications and Works Minister Haris Thrasou was officially informed on November 1 about the declining state of affairs at the Civil Aviation Department. The claim was made by senior official Charalambos Hadjigeorgiou who said he has the documents to prove that he himself had written to Thrasou last November and that proved he was misrepresenting what the JAA said about Cyprus. He also claimed that since the last JAA visit to Cyprus checks had declined.

ALITHIA: “Coup de grace from Charalambos”. The daily reported on the revelations made by the head of the civil aviation licencing department Charalambos Hadjigeorgiou, commenting that he dropped a bombshell on the Cypriot government, the Communications Ministry and the Department of Civil Aviation. The official alleged that no in-flight checks had been carried out for the past ten months and that the department was more or less in shambles, Alithia said.

MACHI: “Civil Aviation grocery shop”. Machi chose that headline to describe the state of the Department of Civil Aviation following the shocking revelations made by a senior official. Despite the substantial amounts of money paid by the airline companies, no in-flight checks had been carried out by the department, the daily said.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.