![]() ![]() After paying approximately €73,000 they were released.īased on the principle that no one is to be tried by two countries for the same crime three out of four defendants were expected to be removed from the Cypriot indictment. Their sentence, 122 years in prison each, had been changed to a ten-year sentence and subsequently to a fine. ![]() The Athenian Court of Appeal had upheld the conviction imposed on a primary level by the three-member Misdemeanor Court with its Februdecision. The four defendants in question were Helios’ executive chairman Andreas Drakos, managing director Demetris Pantazis, flight director Giorgos Kikkidis and the company’s chief pilot Yanko Stoimenov. The acquittal was brought about after the attorney-general’s office suspended criminal prosecution against all natural persons accused, and the airline company Helios. On February 18, 2013, Nicosia criminal court acquitted all the defendants on all charges. Of the 115 passengers, 103 were Cypriot citizens and 12 citizens of Greece. Investigators concluded that Prodromou’s experience was insufficient in gaining control of the aircraft under those circumstances but had succeeded in banking the plane away from Athens and towards a rural area in the final moments of the flight. At 12.05pm the aircraft crashed into the hills near Grammatiko just 40km from Athens. Ten minutes after, the right engine also blew out. Soon thereafter however, the left engine blew out due to fuel exhaustion and the plane started to descend. The fighter jet pilots, glancing into the passenger plane realized that the aircraft’s co-pilot was unconscious, the captain was not in position and passengers were sat motionless with the masked oxygen supply system having been activated.Ī while later, an individual was seen slowly dragging themselves into the cockpit and trying to assume control, it was flight attendant Andreas Prodromou who held a UK commercial pilot licence and had managed to remain conscious using a portable oxygen supply. In a state of confusion, the Greek air force had dispatched two F-16 fighter jets to investigate. On 14 August 2005 at approximately 10.40am the Helios Airways flight 522, scheduled to travel from Cyprus to Prague via Athens, was stuck on a loop at 35,000 feet within the Athens FIR and without having made communication with the ground for more than an hour. The responsible individuals bought their sentence off from the Greek justice system for pennies on the dollar,” he added. No relative considers that blame has been assigned. “As a result of failing to implement routine security checks at “Helios” mistakes occurred in the air, leading to the tragedy. “No justice has been served as of yet” said Soteriades referring to the outcome of investigations, and the trial into the tragedy. ![]()
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