FAMAGUSTA GAZETTE — Thursday marks 20 years since the crash of Helios Airways Flight 522, a tragedy that claimed the lives of 121 people, including 22 children.
The Boeing 737-300 departed Larnaca at 9:07 a.m. on August 14, 2005, en route to Prague with a scheduled stop in Athens. It never reached its destination.
Shortly after takeoff, a rapid loss of cabin pressure left the aircraft without oxygen. All passengers and crew lost consciousness, except for flight attendant Andreas Prodromou, who had pilot training for small aircraft. He made a desperate attempt to take control of the plane, but was ultimately unsuccessful.
The aircraft flew on autopilot for nearly three hours, circling over Attica before running out of fuel and crashing into the hills of Grammatiko, north of Athens. The impact killed everyone on board—103 Cypriots and 12 Greeks.
The crash remains the deadliest aviation disaster in the history of Cyprus and Greece. Investigations revealed that the cabin pressurization switch had been left in manual mode during pre-flight checks and was not reset, leading to the fatal decompression.