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Cyprus grounds Helios plane after flight scares

Posted on: Monday, 10 October 2005, 06:56 CDT

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Aviation authorities in Cyprus said on Monday they had grounded a Boeing aircraft run by budget carrier Helios Airways after the plane carrying British tourists had to turn back twice with technical problems.

The aborted flights to London and Glasgow on Friday and Sunday highlighted increased sensitivity over airline safety on the island since a Helios Boeing 737 crashed into a hillside north of Athens on Aug 14, killing all 121 people on board.

Helios said the Boeing 737-800 would not be put back in service until Boeing engineers had verified that the problem would not recur.

However, the Transport Ministry said it would carry out its own checks which would also cover practices in Helios's engineering department.

"We are grounding the aircraft in question after these recent forced landings," said Transport Minster Haris Thrassou.

A Helios spokesman described the problem as a minor one which had not jeopardized the safety of the flight.

"Safety was, is and will continue to be our first and only priority," said marketing and sales manager Nicos Anastassiades.

A problem with a valve distributing air from an engine of the Boeing 737-800 forced the London Heathrow bound aircraft with 139 people on board to return to Larnaca on Friday.

A similar scenario was repeated on the same aircraft on Sunday, when a Glasgow flight carrying 184 people turned back.

"This has nothing to do with decompression, or air supply to the cabin. The aircraft could have continued flying without problems. It was the decision of the captain to turn back," said Anastassiades.

Helios is a unit of the Libra Group. It flies to Britain, parts of Greece, Dublin, Sofia, Warsaw and Strasbourg.

In the wake of the Aug 14 crash, it sent its two remaining Boeing 737s to Sweden for checks and said they got the all-clear. The airline has a leased Airbus which does not have the company logo.

Inquiries are continuing into the cause of the August 14 crash.

Greek investigators have concluded that the aircraft crashed from lack of fuel, but are trying to establish what happened to render its two pilots unconscious, leaving it gliding on autopilot for more than two hours.

Source: REUTERS

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