
Newsroom
Today marks 20 years since the Helios Airways Flight 522 disaster, when a Boeing 737 flying from Larnaca to Prague, with a stop in Athens, crashed in the mountains near Grammatiko, Greece, killing all 121 people on board. Among the victims were 22 children and 12 Greek nationals, leaving families and communities across Cyprus and Greece devastated.
The flight left Larnaca on the morning of August 14, 2005. Shortly after entering Greek airspace, the plane lost contact with Athens air traffic control. Two F-16 fighter jets were sent to intercept it and observed that the co-pilot was unconscious, the captain was missing from the cockpit, and oxygen masks had dropped. Flight attendant Andreas Prodromou, the only crew member still awake, tried to regain control, but the plane ran out of fuel and crashed at 12:04 p.m.
Autopsies showed that most passengers still had heart activity at the time of the crash, but they were in a deep, irreversible coma caused by lack of oxygen. The crash caused severe injuries and, in many cases, burns from the post-crash fire. Rescue teams recovered 118 bodies, with three completely destroyed by the flames.
Investigators found that a combination of engineering errors and pilot mistakes caused the accident. A key problem was the aircraft’s oxygen system, which was set incorrectly and not clearly explained in the manuals. When the pilots failed to correct the issue in time, both crew members lost consciousness, leaving the plane uncontrolled until it ran out of fuel. After the crash, Boeing and international aviation authorities introduced changes to prevent a similar tragedy from happening again.
Trials were held in both Cyprus and Greece. In Cyprus, five company executives were acquitted. In Greece, four executives were found guilty of manslaughter by negligence, receiving sentences that totaled 124 years combined, later reduced to ten-year sentences that could be paid off.
Akrivos Tsolakis, head of the Greek Air Accident Investigation Committee, described the crash site as “a valley full of pieces of the plane and people.” He called it “the most tragic event of my life,” saying it left a permanent mark on him and the families of the victims.
Memorials continue to honor those lost. Last week, services were held at the Metropolitan Church of St. George in Paralimni for 16 victims from the area. Each year, families also gather at a chapel built at the Grammatiko crash site, lighting candles and remembering the 121 lives tragically lost in one of Cyprus’s darkest days.