Soccer fans refuse to fly due to safety fears
Around 40 Irish soccer fans could be left stranded in Cyprus for up to two days after they refused to travel home on a Helios Airways jet tonight due to safety fears.
The airline had two of its jets grounded in Larnaca airport by aviation officials after pilots were forced to abort flights to the United Kingdom and make emergency landings.
Some 39 supporters said they will remain on the Mediterranean island until other arrangements can be made for them to return home. The fans were due to fly back to Dublin via London or Glasgow with Helios on Sunday.
But they refused to board the flight after engine trouble forced planes to abandon trips to the UK.
A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said embassy officials in Nicosia had been given assurances from management at Helios that a new plane would be brought in for the trip to the UK.
But the 39 fans said they would not board the flight scheduled to take off at 8pm.
A Helios jet crashed into a hillside above the Greek capital Athens two months ago killing all 121 people on board.
Following the crash in August Helios sent its two remaining Boeing 737s to Sweden for checks. The airline has a leased Airbus which does not carry the company logo.
Investigators have concluded that the aircraft crashed from lack of fuel, but are trying to establish what happened to render its two pilots unconscious, leaving it gliding on autopilot for more than two hours.
