A FORMER Civil Aviation official yesterday offered an apology to the victims’ relatives for not coming out sooner with his concerns about air safety.
Charalambos Hadjigeorgiou, who once headed the CA’s licensing department, made the plea after completing his testimony before a committee of inquiry that is tasked with establishing any responsibility for last August’s disaster involving a Helios Airways airliner.
The whistleblower’s allegations have made him something of a persona non grata with his former employers or the airline.
Helios chief lawyer Demetris Araouzos yesterday sought to discredit Hadjigeorgiou as he cross-examined him. In particular, he drew attention to the “Egyptian incident”.
During a previous hearing, Hadjigeorgiou said the CA granted Helios a licence a plane from Egypt even though no airworthiness tests were carried out on the aircraft.
According to Hadjigeorgiou, a team of CA officials had travelled to Egypt to inspect the plane, but for some reason never got to actually see it. Nevertheless, on their return to Cyprus they approved the licence.
The case was cited as an example of the preferential treatment afforded to the airline in question. The implication was that Helios and the CA had a gentlemen’s agreement to bend the rules.
Araouzos asked Hadjigeorgiou whether the expediting of procedures necessarily constituted preferential treatment.
“No, but in this case the proper procedures were completely bypassed,” replied Hadjigeorgiou.
He was referring to official correspondence, produced at the hearings, which seem to suggest that Transport Minister Harris Thrassou had personally interceded in Helios’ favour, asking CA to issue a licence for the Egyptian aircraft.
This was highly irregular, as the approval should have come from the then director of CA, who was evidently blindsided by Thrassou.
Araouzos’ next attack came on the controversial subject of Helios’ name-change to ajet.
“You once said that it took the company just three days to change its name. Do you stand by that?”
“Maybe not three days… maybe it was 13 days. At any rate, this was done without the approval of all the relevant departments. Corners were cut.”
But Hadjigeorgiou’s most serious indictment by far is that Civil Aviation knew of the problems with manpower shortage and did nothing to remedy them.
The hearings, which resume on Monday, have had more than their fair share of drama. Verbal confrontations in the corridors outside between aviation officials and the victims’ incensed relatives have become almost a daily routine.
Perhaps inadvertently, committee chairman Panayiotis Kallis, a former Supreme Court judge, has added to this atmosphere.
On Thursday, Kallis interrupted Hadjigeorgiou’s testimony, remarking:
“After hearing all this, I’m afraid to travel any more.”
