Pilot who crashed helicopter near pub released without charge

The pilot of a helicopter that crashed beside a pub in Co Longford has been released without charge on Friday morning.

The man was arrested on Thursday after gardaí escorted him from a departing plane at Dublin Airport.

The UK national was on a flight bound for the Isle of Man and his plane had been taxiing to take-off when a garda intervened and went on board at about 4.40pm.

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He was taken to Longford Garda station, where he was held under section 4 of the Criminal Justice Act on suspicion of endangerment, but has since been released.

A file is now being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Gazelle helicopter, in which he had been flying with another man, clipped the side of the Rustic Inn in Abbeyshrule on Wednesday night. Both men walked away from the helicopter with minor injuries and nobody else was hurt.

The pilot had attempted to land the aircraft on a small strip of land between the pub and the Royal Canal at about 9.15pm.

Amateur footage posted on Facebook showed the helicopter lying on its side at the back of the pub.

The Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigations Unit (AAIU) attended the scene and is looking into the incident.

The owners of the pub, Teddy and Betty McGoey, narrowly escaped serious injury. They were standing inside when the propellers and tail of the helicopter smashed into the wooden back wall of the pub.

“It could have been a terrible disaster,” Mr McGoey later said, explaining how he had been hit below the eye with glass while his wife’s spectacles were blown off her face.

Gardaí have recovered CCTV footage of the incident which is to be examined by the AAIU.

The footage shows a third man moving picnic tables at the canal bank just before the helicopter is seen hovering.

Ciaran Doyle (14), from Aughnacliffe, Longford, was in Abbeyshrule and recorded the minutes leading up to the crash.

Additional reporting: PA