TWO USA-based Boeing experts are to testify via videolink later this month in the Helios trial, the Nicosia Criminal court said yesterday.
After protracted legal sparring, on April 5, the court issued an interim ruling by which it accepted the prosecution’s request to make admissible the live testimony via videolink of Boeing experts James Murphy and Mark Lord.
The court has adjourned to May 23, when it will reconvene for the first videoconferencing session. A video link is to be established with Boeing’s Seattle headquarters. Due to the time difference with the United States, the sessions will take place from 4pm to 8pm, local time, from May 23 through May 27.
The remote testimony issue has stalled the trial since last November, when the state prosecution – the Attorney-general’s office – filed motions for foreign witnesses. The court initially refused on the grounds that Cyprus had not ratified an agreement between the island and the US for mutual judicial assistance, which included teleconferencing. But in December parliament ratified the agreement as a matter of urgency, paving the way for the prosecution to re-file its request.
The two experts’ testimony is seen as crucial to the prosecution’s case. Murphy and Lord will be asked to testify on debris from the recovered fuselage of Helios’ Boeing jet that crashed into hilly terrain outside Athens on August 14, 2005, killing all 121 on board.
The prosecution’s case rests on the premise that the now-defunct airline is responsible for “employing, and continuing to employ, unfit and inadequate pilots.”
The defendants in the trial are: former chief pilot with Helios Ianko Stoimenov; Andreas Drakos, chairman of the board of Helios; Demetris Pantazis, chief executive officer; Giorgos Kikidis, the airline’s operations manager; and Helios Airways as a legal entity.
They face charges of manslaughter and of causing the death of 119 people through a reckless act. They have all pleaded not guilty.
It’s understood that among other things the two Boeing experts will testify that the aircraft’s pressurisation valve, recovered from the crash site, was left on manual before the flight [it should have been set on automatic], and that the pilots failed to correct this during their pre-flight checks. Therefore, according to the state prosecution, the aviators were incompetent and by inference it was the airline’s fault for hiring them.
The airline denies that the valve was in the manual position before the aircraft took off from Larnaca. The defence team representing the Helios defendants had objected to the videoconferencing, arguing that due to the highly technical nature of their testimony, the two Boeing experts should be physically present in the courtroom so that a proper cross-examination can take place.
Also yesterday, the court granted the defence permission for a visual inspection of the exhibits that are to be discussed during the videolink sessions.
It has been 18 months since the high-profile case began at the Nicosia court complex. It’s understood that, the two Boeing experts aside, the prosecution has one more witness to call.
