Nine named as ‘responsible’ for Helios tragedy

THE KALLIS report on the Helios tragedy has named nine people it considers amid those responsible for the airline disaster, according to Phileleftheros.

The newspaper said yesterday that the report mentioned that these people were responsible in relation to “the actions, failures, events and situations, or the combination of both which led to the accident”. Among the names according to Phileleftheros are the two former managers of the Civil Aviation Authority, manager Stelios Vasiliou and deputy Head of Civil Aviation Iacovos Demetriou.

Communications Minister Harris Thrassou said he had expected the Civil Aviation Department to be mentioned in connection with the crash which killed 121 people in August 2005. “Included in the causes for the disaster, apart from the main reasons which are mentioned in the Tsolakis report, the Civil Aviation Department is mentioned. It was therefore expected that it would be included in the Kallis report,” he said.

Thrassou, who has come under fire since the accident, with relatives at one stage calling for his resignation, defended his position as Communications Minister. “Everybody is judged on what he receives and what he delivers. From the Tsolakis report, it appears there were problems evident in the Civil Aviation Department from 1996 to 2003, with any changes taking place after 2003. I do not feel the need to take the responsibility for events which occurred before I became Minister,” he said.

The Kallis report also apparently outlines a string of errors in relation to Civil Aviation legislation and the laws of the Republic as well as EU rules and commitments under aviation organisations like the JAA, the EASA and the ICAO.

With Giorgos Perdikis of the Green Party claiming yesterday that the time had now come for the people responsible for the tragedy to be punished, Thrassou added that the report still had to be studied by the Cabinet before it would be sent to the Attorney-general who will evaluate it and forward it to the relevant authorities to take further action if necessary.

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