Greek aviation expert testifies in Helios trial

The trial of the ''Helios'' 2005 air crash, which resulted in the death of all 121 passengers on board, continued here Thursday before the Assize Court with a testimony from a Greek aviation expert Elias Nicolaides, a prosecution witness.

The Helios Boeing 737, bound for Prague via Athens, crashed on the mountain of Grammatiko, north of the Greek capital, in August 2005, killing everybody on board.

Another hearing is scheduled today.

During Thursday’s court proceedings, Nicolaides analysed what was recorded in the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), and told the court that no one heard the Mayday signal air steward Andreas Prodromou had sent in the last few minutes before the crash.

Nicolaides also said that the CRV recorded several warning sounds of the aircraft, such as the Cabin Altitude Warning, which is related to the pressure in the cabin and it is activated when the aircraft is flying up to 10 thousand feet.

Referring to the ways the two captains had handled the situation after the Cabin Altitude Warning was activated, Nicolaides said that “the captains did not understand what had happened”, and he added that the two captains misinterpreted the Cabin Altitude Warning.

As he told the Court, when they heard the warning, they deactivated the automatic pilot, and reduced the power of the engines, as they thought the warning was the take off warning, which is activated when the aircraft is taking off with high power engine.

“The aircraft did not have any damage. As they set it to fly, it flew”, he said. “The plane took off like that. It did not compress and continued not to compress. When it reached the altitude at which the Cabin Altitude Warning should sound, the warning sounded”, he added, noting that the captains had the opportunity and should have seen that the selector for the compress was on manual.