Today's Cyprus Mail covers the continued legal wrangling [by the way, the court's decision in Chicago, regarding the venue, has not yet been handed down]:
Ajet: we’re not dodging justice
By Elias Hazou
RELATIVES of the Helios air crash victims warned yesterday that any attempt by the airline to shirk its responsibilities would be futile.
The warning came a day after Helios, now known as ajet, announced it was ceasing all airline operations within the next three months.
Nicolas Yiasoumis, spokesman for the relatives, regarded the move with suspicion.
“Our lawyers are monitoring this closely, and we shall intervene where and if necessary. Any effort [by the airline] to make money out of this, to tread over dead bodies, shall not come to pass,” he said.
Apart from the accident, ajet’s troubles got worse when, only two days after the release of the Tsolakis report, the European Commission in an aviation safety review gave it a ‘yellow card’ by placing it under heavy scrutiny and limiting its flights within the EU.
Despite this, it was clear that even by the August 14 anniversary of the crash, Helios, the pioneer no-frills airline in Cyprus, was finished as far as the Cypriot public was concerned.
The airline dropped its Athens route immediately after the crash, and finally handed back its Heathrow slot in the middle of January this year. It had kept its hard-won slot at Luton, but dealt mainly in charter seats and online bookings for the British market.
Christos Neocleous, lawyer and spokesman for the embattled airline, told the Mail yesterday that continued operation was “no longer feasible financially”.
And he blamed the “witch hunt climate” cultivated in Cyprus in the aftermath of the crash.
“The Kallis hearings were a public tribunal. Anyone who had a beef with the airline came out and said terrible things about it. In the public mind, the airline was condemned.”
Neocleous said the company, a subsidiary of the Libra Holidays Group, would remain registered so that it could honour any civil liability claims with regard to the crash.
Earlier in the day, the lawyer told CyBC radio that the company’s insurers have already contacted the victims’ relatives to inform them that any compensation awarded would be paid in full.
Ajet has been at pains to show that its latest move – as well as its name change – is not aimed at dodging justice.
But the airline is not crossing its arms and simply waiting for its fate. Using the recently released accident report as a springboard, the airline is suing Boeing for manufacturing faults which they say played a major part in the disaster
The lawsuit has been filed in a Greek court, and seeks compensation of at least £30 million. The figure reportedly includes: loss of the jet, compensation for the poor reputation suffered by the airline, damages of £8 to £10 million in the wake of the accident, and compensation for the families of the victims.
Relatives are already suing Boeing in the United States for similar reasons. A Chicago court is to decide whether the hearings should be held there.
Compensation awarded in the United States is typically more substantial than in Greece or Cyprus.
Boeing has admitted its 737 series of planes suffer from design faults – highlighted in the accident report – suggesting an out-of-court settlement cannot be ruled out.
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