What really happened with the flight 552 of Helios Airways 1
On August 15, a Helios Airways plane crashed on at 12:04 EEST into a mountain north of Marathon and Varnavas, Greece. Rescue teams located wreckage near the community of Grammatiko 40 kilometres (25 miles) from Athens. All 121 people on board were killed.
Questioned by AFP, the Greek inquiry team official refused to comment on an International Herald Tribune report that efforts by the German pilot and the Cypriot co-pilot to solve the problem were further complicated because their English was “not good enough for complicated technical conversation”.
“Everything is being investigated, I cannot comment further,” the official said. “When the results are published, the authors of some (news) reports will be justified and others will have to go into hiding.”
The head of the Greek investigation team probing a Cypriot plane crash last month that killed 121 people will fly to London this weekend to quiz the engineer thought to have last checked the aircraft, an official said on Wednesday.
The Briton’s testimony may be crucial in unravelling the lingering mystery surrounding the crash, as he is reportedly one of three mechanics who checked and certified the plane when it left Larnaca in Cyprus.
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Just for precison, English is a de facto language on Cyprus, and 90% of Greek Cypriots are fluent in English. Certainly the entire Air Traffic control staff in Greece and the Greek FIR is also fluent in English as this is the language of aviation.
I don’t know about the German pilot, but the idea of any language difficultyr probably reflects an AFP reporter’s lack of knowledge more than any truth.