Pantazis blames Boeing for Helios air tragedy

Former Helios Airways Managing Director Demetris Pantazis blamed exclusively Boeing for having an inadequate warning system in the 737, leading to the crash of one of its airplanes in 2005, killing all people on board.
Testifying before the Commission of Inquiry into the causes of the Helios Airways air crash in Greece in August 2005, Pantazis read a statement which said that the findings of a report by the Greek Air Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board under Akrivos Tsolakis contained “serious inaccuracies which affect the final conclusions”.
In his statement, Pantazis, who resigned after the Helios Boeing 737 crashed into a mountain side north of the Greek capital Athens in August 2005, on its way to Prague via Athens, killing 121 passengers and crew on board, most of them Cypriots, said the company’s pilots and crew in the ill-fated flight were all properly trained. He also said the aircraft had a valid airworthiness certificate and the company all the necessary permits to operate and it systematically underwent checks by the Civil Aviation Department and the British Civil Aviation Authority.
Pantazis described as a “serious cover up” in the Tsolakis report its failure to make recommendations on the fact that the Boeing’s warning signs are similar for a number of problems in the aircraft.
According to Pantazis, the crash would have been avoided if the pilots knew that the oxygen masks had been released and would have brought the aircraft to a safe level, if there was a separate visual warning system and a warning sound which signaled decompression and was not related to other malfunctions.
“The ineffective planning of the aircraft’s alarm warnings and the inaccuracies in the airline’s manuals for pilots and mechanics, directly contributed to the crash”, Pantazis added.
“If the manufacturing company had acted promptly, correctly, then the accident would have surely been avoided”, Pantazis added.
Concluding, Pantazis said the accident did not occur because the Civil Aviation Department failed to exercise effective controls or because the airline had inadequacies.
“The aircraft crashed because two experienced pilots were confronted with at least two problems and the warning systems and the aircraft’s technology were insufficient to help them handle them before they were overcome by hypoxia,” he added.
During the break, Pantazis was confronted by relatives of the victims who accused him taking into account the company’s finances over the death of their loved ones.