Helios Airways stopped flying under its own name in March 2006, about seven months after Flight HCY522 crashed near Athens, killing all 121 people aboard. Its parent company shifted the operation to the ajet charter name; Cypriot authorities later grounded ajet flights. The available reporting does not establish a precise legal dissolution date for Helios Airways.
What happened to Flight HCY522?
On 14 August 2005, Helios Airways Flight HCY522, a Boeing 737-300 registered as 5B-DBY, was flying from Larnaca to Prague via Athens. It crashed in hilly terrain near Grammatiko, about 33 kilometres northwest of Athens International Airport. The Greek Accident Investigation and Aviation Safety Board’s 2006 report records 115 passengers and six crew members aboard; all 121 died.
The investigation found that the aircraft’s pressurization system was not correctly configured and the crew did not respond correctly to the high cabin-altitude warning. The crew became incapacitated by hypoxia as the aircraft continued at altitude near Athens. Both engines later flamed out after running out of fuel, before the aircraft struck the ground. The FAA’s summary of the findings describes this sequence.
Why the findings were broader than one error
The official investigation did not reduce the crash to a single pilot mistake or maintenance action. It identified latent organizational and oversight problems, including deficiencies in Helios’s organization, quality management and safety culture; inadequate regulatory safety oversight; insufficient application of Crew Resource Management principles; and ineffective action on earlier pressurization incidents. The possible failure to return the pressurization selector to AUTO after maintenance was identified as a contributing factor, not the sole explanation.
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What became of Helios Airways?
In March 2006, Helios was reported to be ceasing flights under that name but continuing to trade, as its parent, Libra Holidays Group, shifted the operation to the ajet charter name. Contemporary reporting described the renamed business as mainly focused on charter flights. Some people expressed concern that the change could distance the company from its responsibilities to victims’ families; that was a reported public perception, not an established motive.
Cyprus Mail’s timeline reports that civil aviation authorities ordered ajet flights from Cyprus grounded in November 2006 and obtained an injunction freezing company assets. These events support a description of an operational transition followed by grounding, but they do not establish the date on which either company was legally dissolved. No precise legal end date is confirmed by the available reporting.
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How should the investigation and court proceedings be understood?
The safety investigation and criminal proceedings addressed different questions. The investigation examined how the accident happened and how similar accidents might be prevented; criminal cases considered legal responsibility. A UK Parliament Hansard transcript, quoting Annex 13, states: “The sole objective of the investigation of an accident or incident shall be the prevention of accidents and incidents. It is not the purpose of this activity to apportion blame or liability.”
A 2026 Cyprus Mail retrospective reports that a Nicosia criminal court acquitted the named defendants in February 2013 and that the attorney-general suspended the prosecution, citing insurmountable difficulties. The retrospective also discusses proceedings in Greece. Those outcomes should be kept distinct from the safety investigation’s findings: an acquittal or suspended prosecution does not replace or rewrite the accident report.
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