Helios trial examines technical aspects

AN EXPERT yesterday explained to the court trying the Helios airline crash the various aircraft operations and parts involved in the chain of events that brought the Boeing 737-300 down in Greece in August 2005 killing all 121 on board.
Theofanis Karathanasis, an avionics expert from Greece, used a slide show to explain the function and parts of various systems including the air-conditioning, pressurisation, equipment cooling and oxygen masks.
He also explained how the aircraft’s doors worked including that of the cockpit.
Karathanasis paid special attention to the pressurisation system, explaining how it worked and what actions flight crew must take in various situations.
A fact-finding probe in Greece had primarily blamed the two pilots, but also cited shortcomings within the airline as well as Civil Aviation as latent, or underlying, reasons for the crash.
The case of the prosecution hinges on demonstrating that the company and its officers are liable for employing, and continuing to employ “inadequate and unfit” pilots.
The prosecution’s angle is that the accident was caused by mistakes or omissions made by Captain Hans-Jurgen Merten and his co-pilot Pambos Charalambous, that they were unfit to fly, and that therefore it is the airline’s fault for allowing them to do so.
A subsequent fact-finding probe on the accident primarily blamed the two pilots, but also cited shortcomings within the airline as well as Cyprus’ Civil Aviation as latent, or underlying, reasons for the crash.
The crash report found that the aft outflow valve was set at a 14-degree angle from the manual position, allowing for partial pressurisation.
It should have been set on auto before takeoff.

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.