Concern at 17-hour delay in search for missing helicopter

A PRELIMINARY report into a helicopter crash in Co Kildare last month in which a flight instructor and a trainee pilot were killed has expressed concern over the time taken to raise the alarm.

The light two-seater helicopter, which was on an instructional flight from Weston airport, Co Kildare, struck overhead power lines and crashed in a remote part of the Bog of Allen on April 1st.

The helicopter’s pilot Colm Clancy (34), from Co Donegal, and his student Dermot Sheridan (24), from Co Clare, who was studying for his private pilot’s licence, were killed.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit’s preliminary report into the crash, published yesterday, said the flight left Weston airport at 4.01pm for a 90-minute lesson.

About 35 minutes later, the Schweizer 300CBi helicopter hit electrical lines, which were unpowered at the time, and crashed in bogland, six kilometres from the village of Carbury. Investigators calculated the time of the crash from a watch retrieved from one of the men.

Air traffic control at Weston closed shortly after 7.30pm on the day of the crash and a search for the helicopter and its occupants did not begin until the following day when a concerned family member contacted the airfield.

A search for the aircraft only commenced at 10.38am the following day, some 17 hours after the aircraft crashed. The wreckage was located soon afterwards by a Coast Guard rescue helicopter which had followed the missing helicopter’s known flight path.

The AAIU said it was “concerned over the amount of time that had elapsed before the helicopter was notified as missing”.

The report said investigators did not believe the weather was a factor in the accident.

The Schweizer 300CBi helicopter is one of the most frequently used aircraft for helicopter training in the world.