Cypriot prosecutors yesterday said they would bring criminal charges against five people over a 2005 air crash which killed 121 people.

The Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 was travelling from Larnaca in Cyprus to Prague when it crashed just north of the Greek capital Athens on August 14, 2005, killing everyone on board in Greece's and Cyprus's worst air disaster.

"We have concluded that criminal prosecution is warranted against certain individuals who we believe bear responsibility for the crash," said Cyprus's chief prosecutor, Attorney-General Petros Clerides.

The aircraft was gliding on autopilot in Greek air space for two hours with most people on board unconscious before it ran out of fuel and crashed into a hillside. A flight attendant with a trainee pilot's licence had taken the controls and tried in vain to avert the disaster.

Dr Clerides declined to specify the charges, which he said were still being drafted, or name the individuals concerned. "These concern serious, possibly the most serious offences of our criminal code."

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