Kathimerini, Greece
Aug 19 2005

Plane attempted to land

Civil Aviation Authority set to face criticism over apparent
inactivity

KATIA CHRISTODOULOU

Candles and flowers were placed outside the Armenian Church in
Nicosia yesterday as a memorial service was held for the 121 people
killed in Sunday’s Helios Airways crash. A couple and their two
children, all members of the Armenian community in Cyprus, were among
the dead. Seven more bodies recovered from the crash site north of
Athens were buried in Cyprus yesterday. DNA samples from the
relatives of those killed are due to be sent today from Nicosia to
Athens to help coroners with the task of identifying some of the
bodies from the crash.

The doomed Helios Airways plane twice tried to land at Athens
International Airport before running out of fuel and crashing into a
mountainside north of Athens on Sunday, according to official
documents, prompting questions about a possible delay in response
from the Greek Civil Aviation Authority.

Investigators are still combing the scene of the crash in Grammatiko,
some 40 kilometers north of Athens, for clues as to what caused the
accident, in which all 121 passengers and crew members on board were
killed.

However, aviation documents obtained by SKAI Radio seem to indicate
that after entering Greek air space, the plane circled around islands
east of Athens, including Kea, but that someone on board attempted to
land the plane on two separate occasions.

The pilots of the two F-16 Greek air force jets that were dispatched
to monitor the situation after radio contact with the aircraft proved
impossible, said they saw the co-pilot slumped over the controls of
the plane and the captain missing from his seat, but noticed two
other figures in the cockpit. One theory is that a stand-in member of
the cabin crew, trained pilot Andreas Prodromou, and his air hostess
girlfriend Haris Charalambous, tried to wrestle control of the plane
and land it in Athens.

The fighter jets were sent out after the Greek Civil Aviation
Authority classified the plane as “renegade,” meaning there was a
possibility it had been hijacked. However, the authority looks set to
come in for criticism over a period of apparent inactivity while the
plane was in Greek air space.

The plane entered Greek air space at around 9.30 a.m. but air-traffic
controllers did not make any attempt to contact it until almost 40
minutes later. Sources told Kathimerini that military authorities
were first informed of the possibility of a “renegade” aircraft at
10.24 a.m. but 23 minutes later told them that the plane was
experiencing a problem which the crew was trying to fix. The F-16s
eventually took off a few minutes later.

The investigation into the crash has been inconclusive so far, but
after a meeting in Athens yesterday Cypriot President Tassos
Papadopoulos said that he and Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis had
agreed to speed up the probe. Meanwhile, sources told Kathimerini
that CIA experts who examined the scene have ruled out the
possibility that the plane had been tampered with, including by
terrorists.

Meanwhile, results of toxicological tests on some of the bodies
recovered are expected today and should give a better idea of
conditions inside the plane before the crash, especially if those on
board had inhaled toxic substances.