In 2005, Helios flight 522 crashed into a Greek hillside. Was it because one man forgot to flip a switch?

The accident led to the deaths of 121 people, and an eight-year legal battle for engineer Alan Irwin. This is what happens when the finger of blame is pointed at you

Early on the morning of 14 August 2005, Alan Irwin, then 44, was with his partner, Donna, and their two young children in an apartment in Larnaca, Cyprus. It was a convenient base, only minutes from the airport. Irwin was an aircraft engineer; he had become obsessed with the technical aspects of planes as a young man in the Royal Air Force, following in the footsteps of his father, also an aircraft engineer and pilot. I enjoy being around machines," Irwin says. If they're broken, they're broken. You can't get angry at them. People can be quite frustrating."

Irwin went on to work for airlines such as McAlpine Aviation and Monarch, and by 2005 had been a freelance licensed engineer for 15 years. The work suited him: it was well paid, and he liked to travel. He had worked in Kuwait, China, Malaysia, the Middle East, Africa, Mexico, Miami.