Helios captain was fired from previous job three months before crash

HANS-JURGEN Merten, the German captain of the Cypriot jet that went down in hilly terrain near Athens nearly five years ago, was sacked by a British airline three months before being employed by Helios Airways for repeated failure to comply with Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).
Nicholas Heyden, a business consultant for Channel Express Services, now known as Jet2, said in court yesterday he was the person who informed the German captain of the termination of his contract.
Channel Express Services had hired Merten in mid-April of 2005, but in the space of a month the company decided to let him go.
Heyden, called to the stand by the prosecution in a bid to demonstrate that the German aviator was incompetent, said Merten had successfully completed all flying and simulation tests, as a result of which he was cleared to fly on April 7.
The witness said that, during Merten’s short stint, the airline decided to transfer him from Manchester to Leeds airport, so that he “could get a fresh start” after fellow aviators complained about the German’s failure to observe the airline’s SOPs.
“It came to the point where it was felt that, despite several people talking with him…he did not take our advice as to compliance with the SOPs, and for this reason we no longer required his services,” Heyden told the court.
Responding to a question from state prosecutor Elena Zachariadou, Heyden said that Helios Airways did not ask the pilot’s former employers (Channel Express Services) for references prior to hiring him.
Had Helios requested from them information on Merten, Heyden said, they would have provided the date of hiring and the reason for terminating the contract.
Under cross-examination by Helios lawyer George Papaioannou, Heyden explained it was not obligatory for airlines to ask for references from past employers, but added that this was a matter of “good practice.”

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.