Helios flight 522 wiki1/25/2024 Officials were quick to stress that there was no immediate evidence to suggest the crash was anything other than an accident. “At this difficult time, I want to assure the relatives that we will do everything to support them and I give my deepest condolences,” said a statement read on the president’s behalf by spokesman Christodoulos Pashardes. The government later announced three days of official mourning from Monday during which flags will be flown at half mast on all government buildings. “First indications from the Greek authorities are that this was not a terrorist attack” Marios Karoyan, presidential spokesman “Give us the names, we have waited too long.”Ĭyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos interrupted his holidays to rush to the airport for talks with airline and civil aviation officials. “Tell us if our relatives are dead,” some cried when Helios officials arrived at the airport after about two hours to brief family members. Relatives’ anger had mounted throughout the afternoon as worried family members rushed to Larnaca airport after news of the crash broke around midday. Tourism is Cyprus‘s biggest source of income and the crash came at the height of the island’s summer holiday season. It was the first serious air accident in nearly four decades to hit the small island of less than a million people. “Unfortunately, after the crash, there was a fire for a few hours and the bodies were completely burned,” he said grimly.Ī relative of a passenger gives a saliva sample for DNA testingĪ Helios official in Athens, George Dimitriou, confirmed that the passengers were largely Cypriots with “a certain number of Greeks and only a few foreigners”. He appealed to close relatives to travel so they could provide DNA samples for identification purposes. The airline later put out a statement, saying: “The names of the passengers were submitted in a timely manner to the authorities in Greece and Cyprus who have taken on the job of contacting the relatives.”ĭNA samples The minister said a flight out to Athens for bereaved relatives would leave at 9.30am (0630 GMT) on Monday. “They (Helios) also delayed in giving us lists for two to three hours when we and the police requested them.” “There should have been a complete list of names with more than just initials and surnames,” the minister said. “It is not a definitive list but we are doing this to try to help the grieving relatives,” said Helios representative Nicos Anastassiades.Ĭommunications Minister Haris Thrassou echoed the families’ criticism of the airline’s inability to say precisely who was on board quickly. Several collapsed, overcome by grief, and were taken by stretcher out to waiting ambulances.Īirline officials acknowledged that they were still not sure that the manifest they were working from was the definitive list of passengers who actually boarded Flight 522 for Prague via Athens.īodies of the victims were burnt beyond recognition “I want them to bring my children back.”Ībout 300 anxious family members queued in the canteen of the island’s main international airport from which the doomed plane took off with 121 people on board to be told the devastating news one by one. “Butchers, butchers, they killed my children,” one distraught relative screamed, echoing widespread fury with the airline, Helios Airways, the Mediterranean resort island’s only private carrier. They were finally called in by airline staff to check a passenger list.
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