British Engineer Refuses Return to Cyprus: Crash Victims Frozen Solid

Remember that mysterious crash of the Helios Airways, Boeing 737 into a mountain near Athens August 14th? There had been no radio contact with the plane 10 minutes before the crash and
all 115 passengers and 6 crew were dead or unconscious when the Helios Airways Boeing 737 plunged to ground without survivors.

Now, this from Reuters:
Investigators must travel to London to interview an engineer, believed to be the last person having radio contact with the plane's German pilot. It is not clear when or why the engineer left Cyprus. Government officials did not know whether his contract had ended, and the airline could not comment. He is refusing to come to Cyprus for safety reasons," said Cypriot Transport Minister Harris Thrassou.

The unidentified engineer, who worked for Helios Airways, signed off the Boeing 737-300 for departure from Cyprus's Larnaca airport for Prague on Aug. 14, the day of the crash -- the worst air disaster in Greek or Cypriot history. The engineer was one of three who serviced the aircraft before takeoff. Excerpts from his final maintenance log have been leaked to the media along with a description of his final conversation with the pilot.

The same aircraft had had a decompression problem last year, and Greek crash investigators are focusing on this as a possible cause of the disaster. Helios, a subsidiary of Britain's Libra Holidays Group, has defended its maintenance record but revealed the Boeing had to descend rapidly to 11,000 feet from 34,000 feet after losing cabin pressure on a flight from Warsaw to Larnaca last December.

Remaining Mysteries:
Why did the pilot and co-pilot lose conscousness before a flight attendant?
What are the odds that this engineer is also a Muslim?