HELIOS CRASH TRUTH
 

To all Aviation professionals out there - We need your help.

As a family member of one of the accused. I am posting the below letter that one of the accused pilots wife wrote and was published by the Cyprus Mail. It's time to release the truth as to what these pilots / Engineer are going through. There is quite a lot that I would like to say but I believe that the below letter gives a good outline of what is going on. At the moment the defendants are being tried simultaneously in Cyprus and Greece. (2 EU countries) for the same incident?! Human Rights violations are beyond belief with translators failing to translate the simplest sections of such a technical case. Recently the Initial accident investigation report being used in the trial has been retracted by the 2 investigators who wrote it due to New physical evidence which counteracts their report. They requested that the case be reopened however this was rejected. Direct breach of ICAO Annex 13.

Please read it and pass this information on. Pilots and Engineers should not be tried in civil courts and treated like criminals especially when the physical evidence proves they are innocent!

Why is new evidence in the Helios crash being ignored? - Cyprus Mail


''I am shocked that the Cypriot press is mute about the new evidence regarding the causes of the Helios air crash as well as the proceedings in the criminal action in Greece.
As the wife of an innocent man - a professional pilot and extremely responsible person who was at the time the chief pilot of the company; an individual who has been wrongfully prosecuted, I believe I must speak up and make the public aware of the brutal violations of all professional ethics and fundamental human rights during the court proceedings in Greece.
For years the media, and the higher levels of power, speculated about the causes of the crash top appease the discontent of the public. At the end, through manipulation of public opinion they succeeded in creating the ‘villains’ destined to be used as scapegoats for the rage of all who suffered the unbearable losses in the crash.
In its final report, the Greek Board of Investigation (AAIASB) threw the whole blame on the two pilots wjp were portrayed as incompetent suicidal idiots. The sequence of their alleged actions, as detailed in the official report of Mr Tsolakis, which was not supported with any evidence, is a hypothesis that will not stand the test of the new findings of independent experts.
According to the official report’s hypothesis, the pressurisation system mode switch was ‘forgotten’ in the ‘manual’ position after the pre-flight check and inspection of the aircraft, and was left in that same position throughout the flight. Under the said scenario, everybody on the plane but one steward suffered hypoxia due to the slow depressurisation of the aircraft.
It is unacceptable, but a fact, that the switch at issue mysteriously disappeared. Other important components of the plane were manipulated or destroyed as was proven in the court in Cyprus. Until this day, there is no explanation why only one-third of the 256 parameters recording the condition of all major aircraft systems and flight data of the recovered “black box”, were decoded and analysed.
It is also inexplicable why the professional investigators failed to notice that a great number of the analysed parameters did not match or make sense at all. According to the data provided in the report, the passenger aircraft must have flown at supersonic speed while keeping its fuel consumption at the levels of a luxury limousine.
These astounding irregularities were discovered five years after the crash and were submitted during the proceedings in Cyprus. As a result of the discovered omissions Ajet, the company-successor of Helios assigned AIR - a team of independent Canadian experts, the task of analysing elements of the pressurisation system. The experts’ scientifically based conclusion is that the mode switch of the pressurisation system was in position ‘auto’ and not ‘manual’, as the Greek Board alleged. The logical question then is: what happened at the beginning of the flight that led to its fatal end? Why were the masks of the pilots never found but at the same time the communication switch was in the ‘mask’ position?
The standard practice in similar cases is to re-open the case/investigation and find the real causes. Contrary to the recommendations of numerous aviation organizations and investigation boards, the Greek board (AAIASB) refused to re-open the investigation referring to a consultation with Boeing, who are a party to the case. At a hearing of the Court of Appeal in Athens, Mr Tsolakis as witness and seeking to defend his report mentioned that in the course of the investigation he relied on the assistance of two prominent NTSB experts whose competence he had no doubt about. Later, it emerged that those same experts, Mr Caj Frostell and Mr Ron Schleede, sent an official letter in which they confirmed the substance of AIR’s evidence and recommended the re-opening of the investigation for the purposes of aviation safety.
The “hypothesis” report of the Greek board (AAIASB) became grounds for two parallel criminal lawsuits, which although not barred in the EU, is profound in its deliberate cruelty.
The lawsuit in Cyprus was based on an independent police investigation. The judges had time and opportunity to get acquainted with the complicated technical documentation of the case and to ultimately hold, despite political pressure, that the evidence submitted was such that no fair and reasonable court could convict a person. All prosecution witnesses, who could competently evaluate pilots and their performance, unequivocally stated that the pilots of the fateful flight were competent and there was no basis for them to be grounded before the flight.
In contrast to Cyprus, the magistrate's court in Greece accepted the AAIASB report as gospel, and with no second thought hastily sentenced four innocent people to 123 years jail. The news flashed around the world, bringing joy and satisfaction to some, pain and anguish from the obvious injustice to others.
1. Greece refused the defendants presentation of certain important exhibits related to the pressurisation system of the plane that were available in the Cyprus court proceedings.
2. The prosecution relied heavily for its case on the official accident report of the Greek investigators (AAIASB), notwithstanding the prohibition on this in the Chicago Convention of 1944 and European Regulation 996/2010 . They used it as a road map for the prosecution despite the new evidence provided by independent accident investigation experts from Canada, UK and USA, that challenged the conclusions in the final report.
3. Important exhibits that would have demonstrated the errors in the official report have been lost while in the keeping of the Greek Accident Investigation Board (AAIASB).
4. The Court failed in its obligation to provide adequate translation. The interpreter was not sufficiently competent to deal with the complex technical issues raised, but the request for proper interpreter, made evident from two of the defendants, who were foreigners, was rejected.
5. During the course of the hearings in Greece, the Bar council called on lawyers to strike. The court was requested to adjourn the hearing, but in flagrant breach of custom and practice, denied the defendants their basic right to representation and the trial continued in the absence of defence counsel. During these days a series of important witnesses testified, but the defence was not able to examine them.
6. The court also refused the defendants a request to allow a simple reconstruction of the workings of the pressurizsation system of a similar aircraft which would have demonstrated the impossibility of certain key findings in the official report.
7. The court exerted pressure on proceedings, and the defendants were not given time or opportunity to call a substantial number of their witnesses, most of which are experts who do not live in Greece and are engaged in professional duties in different parts of the world.
After many international institutions were notified about the numerous procedural and other violations during the investigation and trial, we believed that the Court of Appeal in Athens would proceed in a way consistent with the principles of European legislation, which allows for a fair trial. On October 26, 2012, the appellate trial began. The judges, entrusted with this technically complex case and supposed to start from the very beginning according to the Greek law, heard a total of three witnesses, whose competency to evaluate pilots’ performance is doubtful, and surprisingly concluded after the testimonies that the prosecution could rest. While the defence was provided a single day to summon all its witnesses, the Court announced that it would be ready with its opinion within three days. Aviation experts from all over the world readily flew in from thousands of miles to defend the truth. All of them unanimously stated that the pilots of the ill-fated Helios flight had been competent.
The experts proved that the conclusions of the official report were faulty and that the investigation must be re-opened in order to find the real causes of the crash.
It is more detrimental to society to convict innocent people than not to have a conviction. If today, despite the pain, accumulated wrath and thirst for redemption, we allow this judicial farce to victimise innocent people and to add to the number of the victims of the tragic crash, it will rest upon our own conscience''

Cabin RoC
 

I am not familiar with the 73 but have many hours on the 75. I have had two occasions when, due to freezing slush, the outflow valve stuck, thus cutting out the auto pressurization. I was fully aware of what had happened even before all the various warnings manifested themselves. Ears can tell a story very quickly.
Were the 73’s pressurization not set, what would have been the cabin rate of climb and would it not have been apparent even before 1,000ft, let alone 10 or 20?

Prober, just caught this at a late stage & I have not read through all of the previous. Apologies now for re-stating what might have already been discussed. I too flew 737,757 & 767. Pressurisation systems were similar if not identical. AUTO is a setting which permits fully automatic control of the dump valve. It is the normal ops setting. MANUAL was really meant for use if the auto system had failed. Manual gives electrically AC or DC control of the valve but through pilot inputs on the CLB/DEC rotary control. You are absolutely correct in stating that flight at any point in MANUAL would be easily detected by human sensing. The ears take a real wallop with insensitive use of the CLB/DEC control in MANUAL. Take off in the MANUAL position would have been instantly recognised as the cabin would climb / descend (whatever) at the same rate as the AIRCRAFT rate.

If the crew took off in MANUAL, they will have noticed immediately and switched to AUTO or at least manipulated the CLB/DEC facility in order to stabalise the situation in MANUAL & then go to AUTO. If, however, all was normal & the flight was conducted in AUTO, a failure, sometimes subtle, would in all probabilty still be "sensed" by the pilots and switching to MANUAL in order to attempt control of the dump valve would be a standard 'non -normal' procedure.

Again, deep apologies if this has all been discussed previously.

- I'm afraid I disagree. Remember 'going up' has far less effect on the ears than coming down'. I suggest 'may'? I had to depart INN once unpressurised until around 6000' due to a tech issue and I do not recall noticing anything 'unusual' on the ears. No comments from c/crew or pax either.

I cannot remember the detail of the Helios but I'm sure the 'implication' is that the crew did NOT notice the lack of pressurisation even when the horn went off.

This case stinks. The Greek investigators obviously messed up with the report and their efforts to cover it led to some aviation professionals to be prosecuted for one and the same thing three times.

Cyprus Mail link
 

Hi everyb!
I would like to post the link to the letter by the wife of Mr. Stoimenov again:

Why is new evidence in the Helios crash being ignored? - Cyprus Mail

Please make your position known by commenting on the article.
Let the press in Cyprus know how we all feel about this farce!
:mad:

Athens Court
 

Maybe the time has come to stop flying or working on aircraft that are to enter Greek airspace. 123 years in a Greek jail can't be a whole lot of fun.

And if you are not getting support from your management just remind them that the Accountable Manager will also be sharing your cell!

Legal Defense Costs
 

Whilst we should all be reminding our Accountable Managers they would join us in a Greek Jail ask him or her if your Company Insurers would cover the cost of a decent Defense team ie a cool few million euros, my advice here is don't listen to answers like ''Of course we wouldn't leave in the lurch'' or ''my goodness me of course every help would be offered to you'' It would be nice to see proof of help direct from the Insurers but don't hold your breath whilst waiting.

Act Now Accountable Managers
 

Well said Marvo, I suspect that even Insurers run out of money in cases that go on as long as this one.

At least you will have 123 years together in which you can say "I told you so" to any accountable manager who accuses you of scaremongering and doesn't act.

Greece is still an EU member. Greece is apparently being financed by EU taxpayers. Can this not be brought before an EU court??

Legal Defense Costs - why you will never get the comfort you need
 

I have followed this case for a few years. It is not the first, or last, aviation crash where criminal charges will be brought against aviation professionals. AF447 grinds on in front of Mdme Zimmerman as we speak. BUT, you won't get any aviation insurer or airline to give you the comfort you deserve.

The aviation insurers of any airline have zero obligation to pay any criminal legal defence fees, under any circumstances. The aviation insurers are there to bail out the airline for compensation claims by the families of the dead and injured, and that includes expensive aviation lawyers to defend the airline for those civil claims.

Aviation Insurers only ever start to fork out for criminal lawyers, if they think it is expedient to their financial interests in the civil compensation claims. Put another way, if criminal charges/convictions somehow make the civil claims more expensive, this is bad for the aviation insurers as their bill goes up. Then there is a clear financial interest on the insurers behalf in paying less: so it then only makes sense to spend money on criminal lawyers, as well as civil lawyers, in an attempt to reduce the total bill.

So, money seems to trump human rights or air safety in certain situations.

All rather unsettling, and unsatisfactory.

Decision Day
 

Tomorrow, Thursday 7 February 2013, is the day the Greek Court's verdict will be announced.

The sad thing is that there is nothing anyone can do about it. :ugh:

Greek Justice
 

Greek justice has always been rather different to our understanding.

An aquaintance of mine bought a holiday froman established operator to go plane spotting in Greece. While parked in a viewing spot near an airfield spotting except for one of the wives who was not interested and sat in the bus doing puzzles. The cops turned up and arrest them all for spying. They must not take photographs or note plane numbers.

At the court case they point out that the airfield features in an evening soap opera about the Greek air force at which many photographs and aircraft numbers may be seen... not relevant says the court. They describe the process of aircraft spotting... all lies says the prosecutor there is no such hobby as plane spotting. They produce plane spotting magazine printed in Greece and bought at airport that morning.. All fabricated says prosecutor... they say lets go airport buy more magazines... court adjourns Garry given bail of £10K which he borrows....

Garry told not to attend net court hearing but can't afford to lose the money so turns up... found not guilty..... eight years later still can't get the bail money back is told has been forfeit

If you go the Greece you must obey the rules and laws of that sovereign country, they may not be what you expect.. Greece is fully entitled to make it's own laws but we may be ignorant of them and should not expect allowance for our ignorance

I have no problems obeying the "law of the land".
I do have a problem with people who are supposed to make evidence based judgements refusing to even accept that evidence and make a judgement anyway regardless.

Court today announced its verdict. Alan is found NOT GUILTY.

That's wonderful!

Finally! After so many years of worry. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes as they say. So pleased for Alan but deeply concerned about the possible ramifications of operating in Greek airspace.

Wonderful news. I sincerely hope he can try to put this behind him. (as much as is possible)

It would appear justice does prevail after all, even in Greece. It just takes a long long long time.

Here's hoping he can rebuild his life after this dreadful period.

Common sense finally prevails as far as the engineer is concerned! For chief pilots and executives however the message is clear, the buck for corporate responsibility stops with you. We are quick to criticize them. But as this case shows their positions are not without risk.

Athens decision
 

It is great news that Alan was found Not Guilty, but then he wasn't guilty anyway was he.

It was very heartening for him to have been given the overwhelming support of his fellow licensed engineers both in this forum and elsewhere. Even pilots joined in to wish him well!

The CEO, Operations Manager and Chief Pilot are found Guilty but also did nothing wrong. The big difference is that they got little or no support from fellow management types who kept their corporate heads below the parapet.

But would we expect anything else:sad:

History would seem to indicate that the Greek Legal system is about as competent as the Greek Economic system...

Greek justice ?
 

"It would appear justice does prevail after all, even in Greece. It just takes a long long long time."

You are having a laugh aren't you ?

Helios convictions upheld in Greece - Cyprus Mail

Bulgaria: Greek Appeals Court Upholds Bulgarian Pilot Guilty Verdict - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency

Helios - Farce - Cover up
 

No it's not great news. You are all professional pilots where on earth is the uproar in the pilot community. 2 of the 4 chaps charged are pilots!!!

The air accident report used in the Greek trial was FALSE. The report was initiated by the air accident investigator Mr Tsolaskis AAIASB and it was written by 2 world leading air accident investigators - Caj Frostell and Ron Schleede. They based the report on Tsolakis information and data.

Physical evidence provided by the Canadians was brought forward confirming that the aircraft sustained a Catastrophic pressurisation failure and therefore the pilots would not of regained control.

Ron and Caj RETRACTED their report agreeing with the infallible Canadians findings and demanded that the case be reopened as the report was FALSE. The Greek rejected! NTSB turned the other way and Boeing after paying the ''Hush'' money to the relatives have not said a word..

The Greeks continue to use the Initial report!!!!! :ugh:

Now where the hell is the justice! This is detrimental to Air safety. ICAO is a farse and this is in direct breech of Annex 13. Allowing Boeing to continue to cover up the real reason why that aircraft went down. For a kangaroo court who has no clue on the technicalities in this case to pass verdict.

You are all pilots entrusting your lives in such organisations. Good luck in Greek airspace

Rebeccask
 

Firstly may I state that I believe the findings of the Greek courts are outrageous.

I know one of the accused personally and be assured I find this outcome a complete travesty of justice.

However I do find this statement of yours odd:
I have personally experienced a complete pressurisation failure in a B737 (as well as partial failures in B747's).

In the B737 failure at cruise altitude we did not regain control of the pressurisation but took the appropriate steps to ensure the safety of the pax , crew and aircraft. We donned oxygen masks, attempted to identify and fix the problem, and when we were unable executed an emergency decent.

Whilst I would never suggest that my S/F/O and I carried out the 'perfect' response to the situation we were presented with, I do believe that the basic actions were in general compliance with SOP's at the time.

Evidence would suggest that the actions of the crew of the ill fated aircraft were not in general compliance with SOP's at the time.

To put it in very blunt terms:
The Pilots may not have been able to control this 'catasprophic' pressurisation failure, but they were qualified and therefore should have been able to execute control of the aircraft subsequently to a safe landing. It would seem that they failed to do this.

May I also say that a pressurisation failure should never be decribed as catastrophic. Events leading up to a pressurisation failure could be 'catastrophic'
These events could be things such as a bomb which brought down Pan Am over Lockerbie. In this case the bomb led to a pressurisation failure (to say the least!), and the rest is very unpleasant history.

Pressurisation failures are not that common (one for me in 37 years), but do occur. Most result in a normal landing with no significant injuries.

As I recall maintenance was trouble shooting an air leak in one of the doors the night before and left the pressurization in manual open. The pilots missed seeing it and ignored the cabin altitude warning and continued flying on autopilot until fuel starvation in a holding pattern at altitude at Athens. Fighter jets went up to assist them but both pilots were passed out. It probably has been posted before in the hundreds of posts.

Bubbers - read the link in Post 165

Why do people still continue with the accusations that the switch was left in manual. It was proven that the switch was in auto. The engineers thread has a couple of posts by asheng who attended the trial as a professional witness. It's quite interesting reading and should make everyone fearful of the Greek justice system.

Please do not drift away from the topic!
 

Dear All,
Let me put one thing clear:
This thread is supposed to be about the court case, do not go into the pressurization issue again (discussed at length here and elsewhere).
The essence is that the defendants were tried and sentenced based on:

- a mistaken report
- a misrepresentation of facts
- a misinterpreted responsibility

The court in Athens should have made its own investigation, like the one in Cyprus did (although also based on a wrong hypothesis drawn from the Greek investigation report).
Capt. Stoimenov and the other 2 defendants should have never been brought to court, more so - for manslaughter.
Finally, as Greece in general and the Greek Judiciary are bankrupt, the judge replaced the sentence that he upheld with a "ransom" of 76650 EUR. The money had to be deposited in 7 days - by 14/02/2013.

So this is Bad Management
 

The management of Helios Airways were found guilty; check out your own favourite airline against this.

The AAIASB Report found that the Flight and Cabin crew were medically fit, well rested and qualified (OED - trained and competent) to conduct the flight.

The aircraft had a current C of A and carried no defects.

Safety oversight was by UK CAA

No significant deficiencies were noted in audits and the UK CAA Inspector recommended continuance of the Helios Airways AOC on 5 June 2005.

It doesn't get much better than that, so what are they guilty of?

Thanks for the link,sj. Last time I followed up on this was a couple years ago.


I picked up a 737 about 30 years ago and flew it all afternoon into the evening. The next morning I got the same plane and on first flight of day checks had no oxygen flow. Found the oxygen bottle replaced the day before before we got it had not been turned on so we were reading trapped pressure in the line.

Interesting about their mike selectors being in mask position and they passed out. That is probably what would have happened in our case.

Our opspecs requiring quick turn arounds only required flow checks on oxygen on initial flights on first flight of the day. We flew the whole day with no crew oxygen and didn't know it. The pressure was right but the bottle was turned off. If we had depressurized we would have had no oxygen. I don't know what their opspecs were but putting people in jail is not right. Mistakes were made but they put the wrong people in jail. Hopefully they will rectify this. It is embarassing to think Greece can not understand this.

Oxygen
 

Interesting exchange re O2. The audio selectors were found by the Boeing adviser to NTSB - both undamaged by the impact, not even dusty, and both at MASK.

The Flight Deck valve was about half open. I was taught to fully open it and then turn it back a 1/4 turn (Gorilla avoidance!); am I right in thinking that the flow is quite severely restricted if the valve is only partially open?

Also interesting that the pilot's masks were never found but the supernummary ones were easily located in the flight deck area and in reasonable condition.

probably guilty of nothing more than having an insurance policy that could pay out.

a criminal sentence and corporate negligence, *PAYDAY* !


unfortunately situations like this are nothing to do with safety, responsibility or justice it is about squeaking money out of a policy..

Greece and as Cyprus are both fairly small, you can bet that lawyers and judges are to some degree related or interconnected, heck i'm related to about a third of cyprus.. so lawyers need to get paid, they sure as s**t dont work pro-bono all the time so each settlement will have a percentage going for legal fees, get a criminal conviction and that new house, swimming pool or g-wagen is paid for.

outcomes like this actually set flight safety backwards as well as industry progression and development, that is the travesty following the tragedy!

Actually I think there are some aspects of this tragic case that airline management should have a think about. The captain was a well known 'character' over here, who appears to have changed jobs a lot (so recruitment and supervision may be an issue). Whilst certain elements of the accident will never be known for sure, there were reports of a very poor working atmosphere on the flight deck. Nobody comes out of this particularly well, so suggesting everything was fine and this is just a money grabbing exercise is a little simplistic.

I didn't know the oxygen bottle was not fully on, just partially opened. Rarely do both pilots check flow at the same time so a partially open oxygen bottle wouldn't be detected. Was it even half way open? They probably don't know. All we know is they selected their com to mask so must have had masks on.

They lost consciousness so must have not had oxygen sufficient for both pilots. They must. Have considered this in the investigation.

If true, the mechanic who didn't properly open the valve would be the only person at fault. Flying a lot of corporate jets long ago I knew you opened it all the way and backed it up a touch so it wouldn't jam at the wide open position. You never leave it only partially open. I'm just a pilot and know that.

Did they bother to find out what mechanic installed or operated the last oxygen bottle? Why didn't he open it properly?

Oxygen is either on or off. Half on doesn't count.