Ajet banned from landing in fog

AJET – formerly Helios Airways – has been barred from landing in fog, after authorities deemed the airline could not guarantee safety in such conditions.
This was confirmed yesterday by Civil Aviation director Leonidas Leonidou, who said the airline’s licence to land in low-visibility conditions – known as Cat II & III – had been revoked as of last week.

The story was broken by daily Phileleftheros, which said that the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) had arrived at the same conclusion during an inspection last May.
According to the paper, the airline lacked the adequate equipment, pilot training and experience to prove it could operate its jets in fog.

Phileleftheros said that next week officials would be traveling to Brussels to talk the European Commission out of placing Cyprus’ Civil Aviation on a blacklist.
The revelation came hot on the heels that Civil Aviation did not brief the local Air transport Accident and Investigations Branch (AIB) that a crack formed in the cockpit window of a plane run by ajet – formerly Helios airlines – on May 21, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing at Manchester Airport.

Meanwhile Haravghi reported yesterday that the Greek team of experts investigating last August’s crash had concluded pilot error was the primary cause of the accident.
The team, headed by Akrivos Tsolakis, zeroed in on the aviators’ failure to carry out a checklist during flight or take the proper action when the decompression sounded.
Secondary causes included Civil Aviation’s long-term deficiencies, dating back to at least 1996.
Tsolakis’ finished report is expected sometime in the next few weeks.

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.