Soccer fans stranded over Cyprus flight safety fears

Thirty-nine Irish football fans are likely to be stranded in Cyprus for up to two more days after refusing to board a Helios …

Thirty-nine Irish football fans are likely to be stranded in Cyprus for up to two more days after refusing to board a Helios Airways flight over safety fears.

They were due to fly home on Sunday evening but the Helios Airways Boeing 737 plane turned back after 20 minutes in the air with technical difficulties.

The Irish fans, along with the majority of the 180 passengers, refused to board the same aircraft when Helios rescheduled the flight for early yesterday morning.

The flight on Sunday evening was "a terrifying experience", said Tony Bernie, the founder of Bernie Travel, the travel company used by the Irish fans.

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"The air conditioning system failed, there was water leaking and it suddenly got very cold. It was like what happened with another Helios aircraft which crashed during the summer."

One of Helios's three Boeings crashed into a hillside near Marathon in Greece on August 14th after suffering decompression and a disruption of the air supply to the cabin and cockpit.

It has also emerged that the aircraft that turned back on Sunday evening had been forced to return to Cyprus on Friday only 55 minutes into a journey to London Heathrow.

Nicos Anastassiades, Helios's marketing and sales manager, insisted that the fault was not dangerous and that the flights could have continued without problems. "Safety was, is and will continue to be our first and only priority," he said.

Mr Bernie said he was contacted by fax by Helios to say that the same aircraft was due to take off yesterday evening, after being checked and approved by aviation authorities. If the group did not board the flight, they would have to make their own arrangements. "People are still terrified and there's no way we're getting on the same flight," Mr Bernie said. "We've asked for a charter, and have got lots of different explanations, but no flights."

He said Bernie Travel was trying to organise flights in the meantime, but it could be Wednesday before that would be possible. In the meantime, the company has been paying for the fans to be put up in a four-star hotel.

"We'll pay for the hotels, the flights, and we've given them pocket money as well. They're good customers of mine. It hard to get customers, and it can be harder to keep them, so we're looking after everything. They're all in good spirits at the moment," he said.