Larnaca

And I said, no, I don't think that's where I want to go.

I want to go to Larnaca in Lebanon.

And he said, OK.

I found out subsequently he had gone all the way to the Pentagon and they had checked me out and they knew I was a retired officer who had been wounded.

And for whatever reason, they said, told me, he's OK.

And so we drifted into Larnaca port.

Literally on fumes coming into there with this.

And, you know, it's just too much, Rod.

Do you know the, the sad thing about that brief conversation there, Gareth, is [chuckles] also the sad reason for doing this pod is that we talk about the money of it and you completely forget the brilliant memories and the fun that you had taking part in that European competition.

I'd much rather be talking about getting rained on in Larnaca and, and drunk in Leipzig than how much money it costs for each league.

Kieran, you were nodding away vigorously there while Gareth was, was making those points.

W- well, yes, because i- ironically, I, I've been contacted over the weekend by some, uh, Welsh Cymru League fans-

Minutes later, it crashed into the hills just north of Athens, killing all 121 passengers and crew.

What could have caused such an unusual series of events, and were similar accidents likely to happen in the future? In the early morning of August 14, 2005, 115 passengers and 6 crew boarded the Helios Flight 522 in Larnaca Airport, Cyprus.

Their destination was Prague in the Czech Republic, with a stopover in Athens, Greece.

It was the summer travel season in Europe, and most of the passengers were holidaymakers from Cyprus, who would be getting off the plane in Athens.

Near the start of this episode, I mentioned that the pilots on this flight had a checkered record.

What I didn't mention was that the aircraft's record was not exactly spotless either.

A few days before Christmas, the year before the accident, the plane had experienced a rapid decompression at 35,000 feet on its way from Warsaw in Poland to Larnaca.

The crew made an emergency descent to 10,000 feet where the air was breathable and landed at Larnaca.

August 14, 2005.

A Boeing 737-600 departs Larnaca, Cyprus bound for Athens.

The night before, during a maintenance inspection, the pressurization system had been manually selected.

It was not switched back to automatic before the flight.

And I don't want to go on and on about this, but there are literally no apartments, no townhouses at 600, 700, 800.

Not in Paphos, not in Limassol, not in central Larnaca, not in Nicosia.

If you go up into the mountains, it is possible to find an apartment maybe at 600 to 700 euros.

And if that's the lifestyle you want, that's perfect.

Cyprus is a great hub.

It's a fantastic place to live.

And of course, via Paphos International Airport and Larnaca International Airport, you can get to literally anywhere.

You can indeed in a matter of only a few hours.