FURTHER delays have been noted in the police investigation concerning the crash of Helios flight 522, increasing the frustration felt by the relatives of the 121 victims of the August 2007 tragedy.
Investigations were supposed to be completed by the spring of 2008, but now it appears that they will not be concluded before the summer.
The delay in the arrival to Cyprus of a pilot who had been under employed by Helios in the past is one of the reasons why the investigation cannot be completed.
The pilot’s testimony is considered crucial by police.
“Why wasn’t the pilot questioned before he left Cyprus?” wondered Nicolas Yiasoumi, Head of the Helios victims’ friends and relatives committee.
The replacement of the chief investigator because the previous one retired, constitutes another reason for the continuous postponement of the investigation’s conclusions.
“Indeed, the resignation of the chief investigator has delayed the process,” confirmed Yiasoumi.
“However, didn’t the authorities who appointed him know that he was going to retire?”
Outraged, Yiasoumi went on: “Is this the implementation of the letter of the law which has been promised to us by everyone involved?
“Valuable time has been lost because of procedure.
“Three years after the tragedy, those who are responsible still roam freely amongst us.
“The authorities should take this more seriously and attend to their responsibilities,” he urged.
In September 2007, Attorney-general Petros Clerides said police investigations into the air crash would be finished by the end of that year.
“We are moving forward quickly, so quickly that in the 34 years I have been here, I have never seen an investigation move forward at such a fast pace,” he had said at the time.
Yiasoumi added that his committee has been given the impression of a lack of co-operation between the Cypriot and Greek authorities.
“Why aren’t the Cypriot and Greek authorities co-operating?
“The Cypriot authorities have yet to give vital evidence to their Greek counterparts concerning the air crash.”
Meanwhile, the International Herald Tribune referred to the Helios crash last week, in an article highlighting the vast distances between airline safety regulations across the globe.
The article writes of the “reputation for cronyism” which burdened the Cypriot aviation authority before EU accession in 2004, adding that the Greek government’s inquiry had criticised the Cypriot aviation authority for “inadequate execution of its safety oversight responsibilities.”
“You could argue that national oversight at the time of the Helios crash was not rigorous enough,” said Daniel Hoeltgen, a spokesman for the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
Helios airlines, which were renamed Ajet Aviation, collapsed in 2006 amid a threat from the European Commission to ban it from the Continent’s skies.
“The initiative to assume power at the European level, and the political message that the commission was intent on banning the airline, worked. It showed that we had teeth”, said Hoeltgen.
