Cyprus government appoints Investigating Committee for air crash

Nine months after the air crash in Athens that killed all 121 people on board, the Cyprus government has decided to set up an investigation committee consisting of one person to investigage the the cause or cuases of the crash of the Helios Airways flight that left Larnaca airport in August 2005.

Former Supreme Court member Panayiotis Kallis has been appointed to the role. Kallis will be assisted by two experts, Elias Nikolaides and George Bonis, as well as other personnel.

Government Spokesman George Lillikas said “The investigation concerns the conditions under which licences are given to companies, aircrafts and staff on board, as well as the conduct of controls in general and specifically for this flight and for this aircraft according to the commitments the Cypriot President made in public.”

He said that the attempt to “investigate and detect responsibilities where there are and attribute them to those to whom they belong is entering its final stage.”

Lillikas said that President Tassos Papadopoulos has pledged publicly that the responsibilities will be identified “regardless of title, office, political party or other position, interest or connection.”

The decision to make the appointment comes ahead of the issuing of findings of the Committee for the Investigation of Air Accidents in Greece.