State prosecutors yesterday formally charged Helios Airways and four airline officials over Cyprus’ worst air tragedy, when 121 people perished on a plane that slammed into a Greek hillside nearly four years ago.

The four did not plead to charges of manslaughter and fatal reckless acts due to the hiring of incompetent and inadequate pilots.

The court will reconvene on June 4 to rule whether the case should be committed to trial before an Assize Court.

The Helios Airways Boeing 737-300 ran out of fuel and crashed outside Athens during a Larnaca-Prague flight on August 14, 2005.

The accused are Helios chief executive Andreas Drakos, managing director Demetris Pantazis, visibly ailing operations manager George Kikides, chief pilot Ianko Stoimenov and Helios Airways as a legal entity.

All four were calm and nodded ‘yes’ when asked by the judge whether they understood the charges. Their lawyers were quick to clarify this did not mean they also accepted them.

Demetris Araouzos -- lawyer of Kikides, who is suffering from cancer and undergoing treatment in London, pleaded for the set bail of €75,000 each to be reduced due to the high medical costs.

The judge agreed to bail of €25,000 also bearing in mind Kikides has not been able to work over the past three years.

Some 50 relatives of the victims who gathered outside the court yesterday became agitated on hearing the date for the continuation of the trial.

“They keep postponing it and postponing it. We won’t be surprised if no-one gets punished in the end,” said an elderly man dressed in black and clutching on a picture of his son and daughter in law.

The mother of a young stewardess who was on that fatal flight shouted bitterly: “They won’t be punished. I wish I could spit at them, it’s the only shame they will get”.

But there were no repeat of the incidents outside the court last February, mainly because of the strong presence of police officers both in uniform and in plain-clothes. The accused were taken in and out the court from a back door.

Three boxes of evidence were submitted before the court. It had taken police three painstaking years of investigations amid criticism leveled by relatives of official foot-dragging.

They claim the budget carrier should have had its licence revoked before the crash when it failed to meet certain safety standards, but that an overly lenient aviation authority allowed it to continue operating.

They have also filed claims in Greece, demanding €76 m from US aircraft maker Boeing, arguing that confusing alarms contributed to the crash.