Police Raid Crash-Jet Company’s Offices

Police raided the offices of Helios Airways in the coastal city of Larnaca, near Cyprus international airport last night, a day after one of the company’s passenger jets crashed in Greece, killing all 121 people on board.

Police spokeswoman Christalla Dimitriou said officers “carried out a search” after asking the city’s court for a search warrant.

There were no arrests and she did not specify whether police had confiscated any material from the office.

Cypriot Transport Minister Haris Thrasou appeared on television and appealed to members of the public to contact authorities with any information they might have on the airline company.

Former passengers of the airline have complained that they suffered extremes of temperature and other problems on previous flights.

Investigators said damage to a cockpit voice recorder could hinder efforts to discover the cause of the Cypriot airliner disaster that claimed 121 lives.

A Greek air safety chief said the recorder – one of two “black box” flight recorders recovered from the wrecked aircraft – was badly damaged.

Both boxes were being sent to Paris for examination but safety chief Akrivos Tsolakis said the voice recorder was “in a bad state and, possibly, it won’t give us the information we need”.

Investigators will want to know what caused the problem that led to a loss of cabin pressure on the Boeing 737 aircraft operated by Cypriot-based Helios Airlines.

They will also want to discover if a back-up oxygen system for the pilots failed or whether they were overcome before being able to don oxygen masks.

Helios, which is owned by UK and Cyprus-registered Libra Holidays Group, flies into a number of UK airports from Cyprus. Flights continued yesterday, with Helios adamant that its planes were checked and maintained to international standards.

“All our aircraft are checked very, very thoroughly according to international standards,” said Vicky Xitas, Helios’s commercial manager.

“Following the accident, we are doing no more or no less that we normally do in the way of checks and maintenance.

“The captain of the plane was German, in his 50s and very experienced. The co-pilot was aged around 45 and also very experienced. Our own experts have joined the other investigators and our executives have flown to Greece.”

After taking off from Larnaca in Cyprus, the plane was due to have landed in Athens before flying on to Prague. The pilots first reported air-conditioning system problems, then radio contact with the plane was lost and two Greek fighter jets were sent to accompany the aircraft.

According to a Greek government spokesman, the fighter jet crews could see the co-pilot slumped over his seat and the captain was not in the cockpit. Two people were seen possibly trying to take over the controls but it was not clear if they were crew or passengers.

The plane eventually crashed into a hill north of Athens. Various Greek sources suggested The victims may have been dead before the crash. n There were 21 children on board, although Helios reported that there were only ten people aboard aged 12 or under Some of the recovered bodies were “frozen solid”. n The plane had a history of technical faults