Watching the Turkish invasion from a plane

On Friday July 19, 1974, 30-year-old pilot Adamos Marneros was glued to his television screen in London. The British networks, first and foremost the BBC, were constantly relaying information about an imminent Turkish invasion of Cyprus, just four days after the Greek military junta-backed coup against Cypriot President, Archbishop Makarios III.

The young pilot paces the room nervously. He is not only worried about his family, his home, his homeland. In the evening of the same day, he is scheduled to pilot a Cyprus Airways flight from London to Nicosia with an intermediate stop in Rome. Nicosia International Airport, which had been closed after the Greek military coup, had reopened after strong pressure from foreign diplomatic authorities on Athens' chosen representative and militant Nikos Sampson to evacuate foreign nationals from the island in view of "developments."

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