THE doomed Helios plane had problems with its air-conditioning on the previous flight from Heathrow, while carrying more than a hundred British holidaymakers, it has emerged.
Passengers complained that it was unusually cold and cabin crew apologised after running out of blankets.
Helios Airways has claimed that there were no problems with the plane, which crashed into a mountain north of Athens on Sunday. Twenty minutes into the flight, however, the pilot had reported air-conditioning problems to air traffic control.
Investigators believe that there was a catastrophic failure of the air pressure system, oxygen supply, or both.
Louise Gates, from Newbury, Berkshire, was on the previous flight, which took off from Heathrow at 10.30pm on Saturday. It landed in Larnaca at 4.15am and took off for Athens at 9am, crashing three hours later.
Gates told The Times newspaper, “It was absolutely freezing on that plane. Everyone was asking for blankets but the steward told me they had run out. I used to fly a lot when I worked for Air France and I have never experienced such cold conditions on a flight. Something was definitely wrong.”
Gates, 48, said that passengers were getting up and putting on as many clothes as they could to keep warm.
“It is horrifying to think that it could have been us who were killed,” she said.
She has refused to return to Britain with Helios and on Wednesday spent £1,150 buying new tickets on Cyprus Airways for herself and her two daughters.
Nicos Rodosthenous, head of Cyprus sales with the state carrier, said he had not noticed an increase in the number of bookings with Cyprus Airways, noting that, “we are currently in the peak period so all of our planes are fully booked anyway.”
Helios initially denied that there had been any reports of cold conditions on the previous flight. A spokeswoman said: “We have spoken to members of staff and there was nothing to bat an eyelid at.”
The airline later retracted this and said: “The flight was signed off at Heathrow and flew normally and was signed off as fit to fly when it left Larnaca; but we can’t give details from the log or say what reports there were about the flight because that’s part of the investigation.”
Helios admitted earlier this week that the same Boeing 737-300 had suffered a sudden decompression last December and had been forced to make an emergency landing at Larnaca. Three people were taken to hospital after that incident.
Kyriakos Pilavakis, a former chief mechanic for Helios, has said the plane lost cabin pressure in the December incident because a door had not been sealed properly. “The indications were that air had escaped from one of the doors – the right door on the rear,” he said.
Pilavakis, who resigned from the airline in January, was interviewed for six hours by investigators in Cyprus who have seized maintenance records and other documents from Helios.
The family of the co-pilot, Pambos Charalambous, who was killed, claim that he repeatedly complained about technical problems on the aircraft.
His mother, Artemi Charalambous, said: “He told me the plane had a problem and I urged him not to fly. He told the company about it getting cold on the plane and they told him it would be fixed.”
The family said Charalambous had kept a diary detailing his concerns, which was with him on the plane.
Other passengers in Cyprus have also claimed they experienced very cold conditions on the plane during recent flights.
