Witnesses continued to testify for a second week before the Commission of Inquiry into the causes of the Helios air crash near Athens on August 14 last year that killed all 121 people on board.
Testimonies so far have come from senior and former Civil Aviation officials, while the Chief Investigator of the Hellenic Air Accidents Commission, Akrivos Tsolakis, has yet to conclude his official report into the disaster.
Airhostess Louiza Polemitou said Tuesday that the plane that crashed had technical problems and that during the flights there was either a drop or an increase in the cabin temperature, a problem not fixed despite continuous reports of the phenomenon. She said frost would form near the back right door, which she also reported.
The witness said that after a change in the ownership status of the company in December 2004, many things changed, such as staff working over the allowed hours and lack of communication with senior officers of the company.
She added that her fiance, who was on the specific plane on a flight to Heathrow a day before it crashed, reported the smell of something burning and thought it might be wires.
“I am sorry and ashamed to have worked for this company,” Polemitou said.
The second witness was the Director of the Flight Staff of Helios George Michaelides, who presented letters of resignation tendered by stewards after the air crash.
The letters read out before the Commission said inter alia that the stewards had no choice but to resign after the air crash and that they did not trust the company that they were working in a safe environment.
Michaelides also referred to reports of inappropriate behaviour on behalf of Chief Stewardess Alexia Gerolemou, who was dismissed from the company after complaints by a passenger but was compensated when the court deemed she had been laid off illegally.
Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry Panayiotis Kallis said that before the accident the company flew four planes with 101 stewards and today has two planes and 65 stewards.
He added that in their statements 56 stewards spoke of air-conditioning problems, faulty doors and suspicious smells, and that only 35 said they did not notice any problems.
Testifying before the Commission, Gerolemou mentioned problems concerning inadequate technical inspections and lack of training and organisation in the company.
She said some of the incidents had to do with safety problems in Helios flights, for which she had sent reports to her seniors in the company before May 2004, when she had departed from the company.
Gerolemou spoke of drunken mechanics, the dismissal in 2002 of four mechanics that had not been replaced, the lack of spare parts to fix last minute faults, the overworked staff and other incidents during flights that may have placed their safety at risk, all of which she reported.
