OA121 hopes to shed light on tragic crash

Re-enactment of Helios flight on December 19

A RECONSTRUCTION of the events that led up to the Helios Airways August 14 crash in Greece will be carried out on December 19 with an Olympic Airways plane with the flight number OA121 in remembrance of the number of people who died in the accident.

“Everything is ready. It will take place on December 19,” Greece’s chief accident investigator Acrovos Tsolakis told reporters yesterday.

Tsolakis has been in Cyprus for the past three days to hand over 500 pages of his team’s findings to the Cypriot Accident Investigation Committee and to make arrangements for the recreating the circumstances surrounding the accident.

“Will arrive at Larnaca with the Olympic Airways plane and we will hold a small news conference before the reconstruction to explain what is happening,” said Tsolakis.

He said the plane would take off at the same time and follow the same route, and head for Athens with the flight number OA121. This is symbolic.”

Tsolakis said there would be 15 passengers on the reconstruction flight, along with the investigating team

The fated Helios crash took off from Larnaca at around 9am on Sunday August 14, head for Prague via Athens with 121 passengers, almost all Greek Cypriots.

The flight with a German pilot and Greek Cypriot co-pilot lost contact with Larnaca control tower minutes into the flight and is believed to have flown on autopilot for over two hours before the Greek military sent up two F16s.

They reported seeing the co-pilot slumped in his seat, the captain’s chair empty, and two persons who appeared to be struggling with the controls in the cockpit. The plane went down and crashed into a hill north of Athens at five minutes after midday, killing all 115 passengers and six crew.

Tsolakis’ visit this week also included taking additional statements in an attempt to fill in any remaining blanks. He also had a meeting with President Tassos Papadopoulos and with Transport Minister Haris Thrasou.
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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.