NICOSIA, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) — A group of relatives of victims of a plane crash 14 years ago made their annual pilgrimage to the crash spot near Athens on Wednesday for a memorial ceremony for the 121 people killed in the tragedy.

Helios Airline flight 522 from Larnaca to Athens crashed on top of a hill at 12:04 on Aug. 14, 2005 several kilometers from the airport, killing all 115 passengers and a crew of six.

The passengers were holidaymakers who were traveling to Prague via Athens, where more passengers would board.

Several of them were members of the same families who perished in the crash and others were couples who went on holiday leaving their children with their parents.

The Boeing 747-31S plane took off at 09:07 from Larnaca and headed west, with the pilot being instructed to take the plane up to cruising height. That was the last communication with the plane.

When it entered Greece’s FIR at 10:37, controllers in Athens could not establish contact and F-16 fighters were scrambled to inspect the plane as it was flying on automatic pilot towards the airport making circles.

The fighter pilots reported that masks had dropped in front of the passengers, who seemed to be unconscious. The flight crew also were unconscious, while a cabin attendant, the only person to move in the plane, who had a pilot’s certificate, tried to gain control of the plane, but in vain as he seemed to be confused.

The left engine of the plane stopped at 11:50 because of lack of fuel and 10 minutes later the right engine also stopped, resulting in the crash of the plane on a hill five minutes later.

Greek aircraft accidents investigator Akrivos Tsolakis said in his report of the accident that when the plane gained height it failed to pressurize and the people on board passed out. They were alive when the plane crashed, but unconscious.

Tsolakis also blamed the Civil Aviation Department for poor surveillance of airline companies, the Boeing Company for poor documentation and the airline for poor training of its personnel to deal with emergencies.

When invited by a local site to speak about the accident on Wednesday, Tsolakis refused to go into details, saying it would be futile to say anything after so many years.

But he noted that his recommendations in the accident report led to corrective measures by the manufactures of the plane and airlines.

“What we said in our report corrected several faults and planes today fly better and with greater security. The possibility of having a plane crash from the same causes is entirely excluded,” Tsolakis said.

A court in Athens imposed prison sentences in 2009 on four executives of Helios Airline amounting to a total of 124 years. However, an appeals court changed the sentences to 10 years in prison for each one of the accused, and accorded to three of them the right to buy out their sentence by paying 80,000 euros