A diary kept by one of the pilots of the Helios Airways B737
that crashed following a freak cabin depressurization two weeks ago
outside Athens, Greece was found at the scene last week. According
to news reports, the find is expected to shed new light into one of
the most mysterious aviation crashes on record.
Pambos Charalambous was co-pilot on the doomed airliner that
crashed on August 13, claiming all 121 lives aboard. He apparently
kept a personal journal in which he wrote about his concerns with
technical problems with the aircraft involved, as well as issues
with Helios as a company.
"My father kept a diary in which he logged every one of that
plane's and [the] airline's problems," said Charalambous's son
Yiannis at his father's funeral last week. "He once told me that if
any of it ever got out the company would close."
The diary was found
among the wreckage soon thereafter. Once it was discovered,
accident investigators flew in Charalambous's widow from Cyprus to
confirm that the diary was her husband's, sources told the Greek
newspaper Kathimerini. It was then passed to head of the
investigation team, Akrivos Tsolakis, who is scheduled to arrive in
Cyprus Monday to interview officials and Helios airline
staff.
Helios had initially maintained that the aircraft had suffered no
other incidents and was fully airworthy at the time of the
accident. It was later revealed, however, that the B737 that
crashed had experienced cabin depressurization issues before.
Reaction to the Helios crash -- one of five that occurred
worldwide in August -- has been swift throughout Europe. The
government of the European Union has stepped up its call, first
issued last year, for each member-state to submit a list of banned
air carriers in their countries. England has already posted a list
online, and France and Belgium are expected to do so this week.
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