The families that were wiped out
By Jean Christou

Cyprus Mail, Cyprus
Aug 17 2005

TWELVE entire Cypriot families, including a family of four Armenian
Cypriots, were wiped out in Sunday’s horrific air crash that killed
121 passengers and six crew members of the doomed Helios flight that
went down north of Athens.

Among the dead were also six representatives of Libra Holidays,
which owns Helios, a Greek Naval officer, a Greek Cypriot National
Guard officer, and a Cyprus Airways employee.

The youngest victim was four years old. In all, 17 children under
the age of 16 died in the crash. Three of the children, aged 16,
14 and five died along with their parents.

The oldest passengers were a couple aged 63 and 65.

Included in the six crew members who died was the daughter of Lonias
Efthyvoulou, artist and brother of veteran journalist Alex Efthyvoulou,
who was due to be married next month.

Few people in Cyprus did not know one of the victims, but places like
Paralimni and Dhali lost more than most.

Sixteen resident of Paralimni died, half of them children.

Three entire families from the town were wiped out, including Christos
Pyrillis 40, his wife Antonia, 36 and their three children Eva 12,
Xenios 10 and Marcos six, who had gone on a week-long holiday.

Reports yesterday said Antonia had been worried about flying and had
called her brother Andreas from the airport; he reassured her that
she was flying with an EU airline and that it would be safe.

All day Monday and Tuesday, friends and neighbours gathered at the
homes of the three bereaved families, while the town’s Mayor declared
40 days of mourning. He also said his municipality would cover the
cost of the burials.

Another Cypriot family in Paralimni, who were visiting from Australia,
left their 20-month old baby at home with its grandparents because
it had a fever. The boy, George Xiourouppa, is now an orphan.
His father Demos, 39, his mother Margarita, 34, and sisters Sophia,
10, and Joanna, nine, died in the crash. Reports said that Demos
didn’t actually want to go on the trip but his daughters begged him.

“You don’t know what to do,” one resident in Paralimni told
reporters. “If someone loses a grandparent or a mother or a father,
you go round to their house and talk about the person who’s gone
and you have a wake. But what are we supposed to do when we’ve lost
whole families?”

One woman from Nicosia, who had not gone on the trip, lost her husband
and three children, two boys and a girl aged 10, 8 and five.