THE GREEK team investigating the August 14 crash of Helios Airways flight ZU522 had a busy day yesterday interviewing dozens of airline officials and technical staff.
Meanwhile, reports from Greece pointed the finger at two air traffic controllers there for allegedly not doing their job right on the fatal day.
Air accident investigators, headed by Akvrivos Tsolakis, met with a number of Helios staff at Larnaca’s Golden Bay Hotel where they have been lodged since arriving on the island last week.
They interviewed pilots who were former colleagues of Hans-Juergen Merten, the enigmatic captain of the doomed Boeing, as well as other Helios cabin crew. Today, they are set to meet with Helios’ managing director Demetris Pandazis.
Tsolakis also saw the parents, uncle and sister of Andreas Prodromou, the flight attendant believed to have tried to take control of the Boeing 737 before it ran out of fuel and crashed into a hillside near Marathon, outside Athens. The meeting took place at Tsolakis’ request.
Earlier in the day, Tsolakis sped to the Presidential Palace for a meeting with President Papadopoulos. The chief Greek investigator denied media speculation the meeting was called because something urgent had come up, saying its purpose was merely to keep Papadopoulos updated on the course of investigations.
Asked on CyBC radio whether he had informed the President when a second, updated preliminary report on the causes of the accident would be ready, Tsolakis replied in the negative.
“Overall, we are very pleased with progress in investigations…everyone here in Cyprus has been very cooperative,” he added.
He shrugged off suggestions that Helios staff were being subjected to a shakedown.
“No, no, everyone has been very forthcoming,” he remarked.
Tsolakis confirmed members of his team would next week be travelling to the UK to interview two British mechanics who, until recently, had been in the employ of Helios Airways. The mechanics’ departure raised a few eyebrows, although Attorney-general Petros Clerides said they had been questioned by Cypriot police before heading back home.
The probe is currently in its second stage, with the gathering of statements from people associated in one way or another with the airline. The third phase concerns two teams, the operations investigating team and the engineering and maintenance investigating team, which will be interviewing around 10-12 people in depth.
Tsolakis’ team hope to piece together the scenario of the ill-fated flight, detailing the exact events which occurred after take-off and just before it crashed. An educated guess of what happened should be made within 15-20 days.
“Evidence will be categorised in order of importance and relevance and then prioritised,” said Tsolakis, who has advised victims’ relatives and the general public to be patient while experts try to arrive at the truth.
Meanwhile unconfirmed reports yesterday claimed an inquiry by Greece’s Civil Aviation Agency has found fault with two Greek air traffic controllers on duty on the morning of 14 August.
According to the same sources, the two are blamed for not immediately establishing voice communication with flight ZU522 once it entered the Athens FIR. However, the inquiry found no causal link between this negligence and the actual crash.
And authorities yesterday denied that bones found at the scene of the tragedy at Grammatikos belonged to the three dead passengers who have not yet been identified. None of the 121 people on board survived the fierce crash.
Back in Cyprus, the government said an independent inquiry into the air disaster would get underway parallel to the investigation headed by Tsolakis.
“We shall not wait for Greece’s accident-investigating team to complete their work before we start ours,” clarified government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides.
“In fact, our investigation will draw on their interim findings as these are made available,” he added.
The decision to launch the inquiry comes more than two weeks after the crash, after the administration faced considerable political pressure, culminating in parliament’s demand for such a probe on Thursday.
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