‘Helios’ plane crash case dismissed by Nicosia Court

Nicosia Criminal Court dismissed all charges against five defendants last Wednesday on the now-defunct’s Helios Airways plane that crashed in 2005 killing 121 passengers on board. The Criminal Court ruled there was no prima facie evidence to justify the charges of manslaughter and reckless endangerment against the defendants (four individuals plus Helios Airways) on the grounds they had employed “unsuitable and inadequate” pilots.

The families of the victims accused the AG of bungling the case and failing to publish the findings of an in-depth enquiry into the crash by former judge Panayiotis Kallis. Clerides subsequently announced his decision to appeal the court’s decision, which if successful would lead to a re-trial from scratch, not a conviction. Under pressure from relatives, he also made public the Kallis report.

Speaking to the state broadcaster yesterday, Clerides accused his detractors of taking the Kallis report as “the absolute truth” that could be presented in court to guarantee a conviction. “This is a completely wrong impression. The report is nothing more than a preliminary investigation with some conclusions,” he said, adding that his office took all investigations into the crash into consideration when filing charges against the five defendants.

While the Kallis report found the two pilots of the Helios plane directly responsible for the crash, and the four defendants cleared of all charges earlier this week liable for manslaughter, it also found seven members of the Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) criminally liable for dereliction of duty.