The report on the deadliest air accident in Greece and Cyprus' history also blamed sloppiness by Helios Airways in Cyprus and Cypriot aviation authorities, and alleged that the Boeing Company had dealt inadequately with a problem affecting its 737 series passenger jets.
Chiefly, it faulted the two pilots of the Boeing 737-300 for failing to recognize warnings of a drop in cabin pressure, and also for omitting to switch pressurization from manual to automatic in pre-flight checks.
When the cabin pressure failed, the 59-year-old German pilot and his 50-year-old Greek Cypriot co-pilot were incapacitated from loss of oxygen. The plane continued on autopilot until it ran out of fuel, crashing into a rural hillside about 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Athens.
Last year, the investigating committee informed the Athens prosecutor's office that the Helios pilots may have been confused by an emergency warning signal with the same sound for two different malfunctions.
The report, a summary of which was released by the transport ministry, blamed Boeing for taking inadequate measures to rectify similar pressurization "incidents" on the same type of aircraft.
Helios and the Cypriot regulatory authorities were also held accountable for omissions seen as "latent causes" of the crash.
The operating company, which has since been renamed Ajet, was found to have "deficiencies" in its organization, quality management, and safety culture.
The Cypriot regulatory authority was accused of "inadequate execution of its safety oversight responsibilities."
Both Boeing and the Cypriot authorities have since taken steps to correct a number of recommendations made by the Greek investigators, the report said.
But Monday, Ajet barely avoided inclusion on a list of airlines considered too unsafe to fly in the European Union.
The international air industry had been eagerly awaiting the accident report, since the Helios disaster was one of the most puzzling in aviation history.
Taking off from Larnaca airport for a flight to Prague via Athens, the plane flew on auto-pilot for nearly two hours, if not more, before the crash.
In his last communication to Helios' operations center shortly after takeoff, the German pilot reported a take-off configuration warning and an equipment cooling system problem.
Later, after the airliner had entered Greek airspace and was failing to respond to calls, the pilots of two Greek F-16 fighters who intercepted it found the captain's seat empty, someone slumped in the first officer's seat, and a second person wrestling with the controls.
That person has since been identified as Helios flight attendant Andreas Prodromou, who apparently managed to stay conscious while the cabin lost oxygen, sending two mayday messages before the plane's engines gave out.
How Prodromou managed to remain conscious when the flight's pilots blacked out is still unclear.
Of the 121 people aboard the Helios flight, three have still not been identified.
On Monday, chief investigating coroner Filippos Koutsaftis said that his staff were still sorting through small fragments of bone found on the site of the wreck at Grammatiko, but had nothing conclusive to report. "We're running DNA tests. The bone fragments are still coming in stages," he said.
Akrivos Tsolakis, who headed the investigation, personally presented a copy of the report to Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos in Nicosia.
In brief remarks afterwards, he said "I would suggest that everyone on the island look ahead to the future."
He added that the safety recommendations made to Boeing "have contributed greatly to global flight safety."
The report is to be delivered to AJet and the Cypriot civil aviation authority Wednesday.
© 2006 Agence France-Presse