EXPERTS INVESTIGATING the aircraft crash that claimed the lives of six people at Cork Airport last Thursday are hoping to have analysed the data from two flight recorders on board the aircraft by the end of this week.
Department of Transport Air Accident Investigation Unit member Paddy Judge said the team was examining the Flightline BCN Metroliner flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.
Mr Judge explained that the Air Accident Investigation Unit has been in contact with the manufacturers of the recorders to obtain framing files to allow them match up the data on both recorders so that they can accurately say what happened.
The Flightline BCN 19-year-old Fairchild Metroliner was operating a scheduled service for Manx2.com airline from Belfast City Airport to Cork Airport when it crashed in thick fog on the main runway at Cork at 9.52am on Thursday, with six of the 12 people on board losing their lives.
Mr Judge cautioned against drawing premature conclusions as to what caused the crash after several media reports suggested the aircraft flipped over after its right wing hit the main R17 runway at Cork Airport on approach.
He said, “at some stage it is correct that the right wing hit the runway, but we need to be cautious about what was the initiating sequence because this entire event happened in a matter of seconds”.
According to Mr Judge, the investigation has established from a debris trail that the aircrafts first point of impact was on the runway and that it left a debris trail extending 180-190m to the point where the aircraft came to a stop off the runway.
Air Accident Investigation Unit members transported the debris from the cargo area at Cork Airport on Saturday night to its hanger at Gormanston in Co Meath, where it will undergo technical examination over the coming days.
Today the funerals will take place of two of the victims of the crash, Brendan McAleese (39) from Tannaghmore, Co Antrim, and Pat Cullinan (45) originally from Crannagh, Co Tyrone, but living in Belfast.
The others who lost their lives in the tragedy were Spanish pilot Jordi Gola Lopez (31), from Manresa near Barcelona; co-pilot Andrew Cantle (27), from York, in England; businessman Richard Noble (48), from Jordanstown in Belfast; and Michael Evans (51), from Belfast.
Four other passengers – Heather Elliot from Belfast; Peter Cowley (31) from Glanmire in Cork; Brendan Mallon from Bangor, Co Down; and Mark Dickens from Watford in the UK – remain in a serious but stable condition at Cork University Hospital.
Rescue crews who pulled survivors from the crash received a standing ovation yesterday during a memorial service for the victims.
Hundreds of people gathered at the Church of the Assumption in Ballyphehane, near Cork Airport, to offer prayers for those killed and injured. Bishop of Cork and Ross John Buckley said it was difficult to come to terms with a tragedy such as this. Life was often mysterious and seldom was an easy answer found, he said.
Earlier, the Church of Ireland Bishop of Cork, Paul Colton, led a service at the tiny chapel of Christ the Healer at Cork University Hospital. Speaking to the congregation in a service transmitted on hospital radio, Dr Colton said the airport was physically and emotionally close to Corkonians.
“Thursday’s crash . . . deep down has made us all feel vulnerable. Our own fragility has given us all a profound sense of local solidarity,” he said.