Helios crash investigation expert dies, aged 93

Akrivos Tsolakis, who lead the committee for investigation into the fatal Helios Airways plane crash passed away on Monday, at the age of 93.

The fatal crash of Helios Airways Flight 522, on August 14, 2005, claimed the lives of 121 passengers and crew.

The Helios Airways flight was a scheduled passenger flight from Larnaca to Prague, with a stopover in Athens. The plane crashed in the mountainous area of Grammatikos killing all on board.

In his statements to the Cyprus News Agency in the summer of 2022 on the occasion of the anniversary of the crash, Tsolakis, erstwhile President of the Hellenic Air Accidents Investigation Committee, said it had left a permanent mark on him psychologically. He described the fatal event as a “punch in the stomach” and the most tragic thing he had experienced in his life.

Tsolakis was born in Thessaloniki in 1930. He had graduated from the Icaron flight school in 1950 and served in the Greek Air Force.

He worked as aircraft captain at Olympic Aviation where he assumed the role of Director of Flight Security and for where he retired in 1990.