ATHENS The Court of Appeals in Athens has ruled that three of the defendants in the Helios air disaster of 2005 are guilty and has sentenced them to 122 years imprisonment each.
Helios Director Demetris Pantazis, Flight Operations Director Andreas Kikkides and Chief Pilot Ianko Stoimenov were found guilty.
Chief engineer Alan Irwin, the fourth defendant, who had checked the aircraft before the doomed flight, was found not guilty.
The judge sentenced the three defendants to 122 years imprisonment each and according to Greek law, they should serve at least ten years.
The court proposed that the three pay their way out of jail but the defence counsel said the amount was too high and asked the judge to lower it to the least possible. The defence put forward as mitigating circumstances the defendants’ former honorable life and good behaviour.
On August 14, 2005, 121 people were killed when a Helios Boeing 737 crashed into the mountainside of Grammatiko, north of the Greek capital, on its way to Prague. Most victims were holidaymakers from Cyprus.