FRESH clues yesterday suggested a chain of blunders and lapses may have been responsible for the air disaster of August 14, which killed all 121 passengers and crew on board.
Citing sources close to the crash investigation, the International Herald Tribune said the German captain and his co-pilot had trouble communicating effectively in English and misinterpreted the alarms, failing to identify problems with the pressurisation of the plane.
According to the newspaper, the crew heard a danger signal warning of a failure to pressurise but which they mistakenly thought was indicating a malfunction of their controls.
A second alarm related to the air cooling system went off minutes later, prompting the captain to leave his seat to try to turn it off. He is then believed to have rapidly lost consciousness due to lack of oxygen.
The same sources said the failure of the plane to pressurise originated in maintenance the night before the ill-fated flight. The maintenance crew apparently left a pressurisation controller rotary knob out of place and the crew did not notice the mistake during preflight checks the next day.
In Greece, an official involved in the investigation declined to comment on the report.
And The Times in London said that Briton Alan Irwin, a mechanic for Helios Airways who conducted a pre-flight check of the Boeing 737-300, cleared the plane for takeoff despite being unable to locate a malfunction noted by the crew during a London to Larnaca flight the night before.
The crew aboard the plane’s penultimate flight had reported hearing sounds coming from the rear door hatch. Upon landing, the aircraft was checked by Irwin and another British mechanic, Malcolm Fowler.
The paper said a similar problem had been noted on the same plane in December 2004, necessitating an emergency landing then.
Irwin was also the last person to speak with German captain Hans Juergen Merten about 20 minutes after take-off. Merten reported a glitch with the air conditioning system.
The two British mechanics resigned their job with Helios shortly after the accident and headed back to the UK. It’s been suggested they wanted to avoid the public glare.
Back in Cyprus, Attorney-general Petros Clerides yesterday repeated there was nothing sinister about their departure, as both mechanics had testified to police before leaving the island. He said the mechanics had told Cypriot authorities they were ready to testify again if needed.
In response to a question by a journalist, Clerides did not rule out the possibility of having the two mechanics extradited to Cyprus if, hypothetically, they refused to be co-operative in the future.
Meanwhile the House Communications Committee announced yesterday a list of persons who would be called to testify before it. The list includes, but is not limited to, former Communications Ministers, Civil Aviation Department directors and senior officers, heads of airlines, chief mechanics, representatives of airline employees unions, the Auditor-general and officials from the Attorney-general’s office.
The committee’s mandate is to investigate the overall state of affairs regarding Cypriot aviation: checks by the Civil Aviation Department and possible shortcomings, and the adequacy of the relevant legislation. It runs parallel to a police probe on establishing possible criminal negligence, while a team of Greek experts are trying to figure out the exact causes of the crash.
“We shall not commit the crime of condemning anyone in advance,” pledged committee chairman Nicos Pittokopitis, of DIKO. He was commenting on fears that the process might degenerate into a witch-hunt.
He said more additions could be made to the persons testifying before the committee, and that a report on its findings would be submitted to the plenum.
Relatives of the victims, who blame Helios for the tragedy, are opposed to parliament’s involvement, and demand that an independent commission be set up locally to uncover the truth. They are wary the issue might become politicised and thus divert attention away from the real culprits.
Yesterday it seemed their fears were coming true, as deputies began squabbling over who had taken the initiative in convening an extraordinary session of the House Communications Committee.
On Wednesday, black-clad relatives demonstrated outside the parliament building, calling for the immediate appointment of independent investigators. The government’s position on the matter has been obscure at best: on the one hand it says it is ready to authorise the probe, but on the other it maintains its implementation is contingent on the findings of the Greek team investigating the accident.
