EXAMINATION OF the Pilatus PC-9 that crashed in Connemara with the loss of two Air Corps pilots’ lives is due to begin today at Casement Aerodrome in west Dublin.
A representative of the Swiss manufacturers of the training aircraft, Pilatus, flew to Ireland to assist in the inquiry, which is being led by the Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigation Unit with assistance from the Air Corps.
President Mary McAleese, Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea have extended sympathies to the families of Air Corps chief flight instructor Capt Derek Furniss (32) and Cadet David Jevens (22), who died instantly on Monday evening in the crash at Crimlin east, a mountainous area near Cornamona on the Galway-Mayo border.
Mr O’Dea has said that a preliminary report will be issued in about four weeks, and the final report will take months. The Air Corps said yesterday that additional safety checks were being carried out on the fleet of seven Pilatus PC-9 training aircraft, but that there were no plans to ground the planes pending the inquiry.
The bodies of the two pilots were removed from the crash scene early yesterday afternoon and taken to University College Hospital, Galway for postmortem examination. The funerals will take place this week.
Arrangements were also being made last night to transport the wreckage of the aircraft to Casement Aerodrome. Difficult weather conditions and inaccessibility of the terrain had hampered efforts to secure the area, ensure explosives fitted to ejector seats were made safe, and carry out preliminary investigations.
The flight and cockpit voice recorder were located, the Defence Forces press office said. It asked for respect for both families “at this very difficult time”.
Air Corps spokesman Comdt Séamus McCormack said the training run was on a “commonly practised route” from Baldonnel across by Prosperous, Co Kildare, and to Maam Cross, Co Galway, with this first section being a visual flight route where pilots fly at 457m (1,500ft) and navigate visually.
The training craft then normally lands to refuel at Galway airport and returns to Baldonnel at a higher altitude on instruments. The Pilatus PC-9 was one of three that took off separately on training runs on Monday, and was reported missing at 6.20pm.
General Officer Commanding the Air Corps Brig Gen Ralph James visited the Furniss family on Monday night, hours after the crash, and flew to Wexford yesterday to meet the family of Cadet Jevens. “The Air Corps is devastated by the loss these two very fine young men,”Brig Gen James said yesterday.
“The mood here is very sombre. Derek was a consummate professional who set and drove standards in all his work in Baldonnel.
“David was living his life’s dream to become an Air Corps pilot and was on the cusp of achieving that later in the year with his classmates.”