The Department of Transport and Power renewed a Certificate of Airworthiness for the Viscount St Phelim seven weeks before it crashed in March 1968 knowing that some maintenance documentation had gone missing or that the Aer Lingus file was not properly scrutinised, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said yesterday.
Speaking at a press conference to present the review of the Irish and UK files on the loss of the Aer Lingus plane, Ms O'Rourke said no definitive "cause and effect" for the crash could be inferred from the review. However, she said it was "inexplicable and incomprehensible as to why knowledge of this lost material was not included in the report of 1970".
The lost material included a number of cards from a routine maintenance check carried out on the plane in December 1967. An internal Aer Lingus memo in January 1968 noted the fact that the paperwork was missing. "I am deeply disturbed by information which has come to light following the review process of the files which I initiated last year. A number of serious matters have arisen," Ms O'Rourke said, adding that the matters "warrant further appraisal".
The Minister said she would not have thought the new information about the maintenance records would have emerged when she initiated the review. "The terrible thing is that there has been so much wasted time."
She said the 22 victims' relatives she met at Government Buildings yesterday afternoon were in a "very sad" mood.
"It has obviously had a very dramatic effect on them and the biggest things they were asking was why hadn't this investigation happened before."
She said most of those involved in the original maintenance checks were dead and one was ill. A representative of the Air Accident Investigation Unit said it would not be appropriate to "hound him [the ill man] for information".
Ms O'Rourke added: "People reading the report today may be concerned that the arrangements of the time were such that those who regulated the safety procedures of airlines were also entrusted with investigating accidents. That was the norm for the period and is something that has not obtained for some years now."
Referring to speculation that the plane may have been in collision with another air-borne object such as a missile, she said the UK position had not changed.
Last night a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in London said the review of evidence made it clear there was "no evidence" to support conspiracy theories of British involvement. The spokesman said officials had yet to read the review, but understood it "seems to suggest our views have been confirmed" that no target drones or missiles were launched, lost or damaged on the day of the crash and no British military or civil aircraft were lost on March 24th, 1968.
Press Association adds:
A spokesman for the British embassy in Dublin said the British government had co-operated "closely and constructively" with its Irish counterparts in helping to compile the report. "We hope that our contribution will help to underline the fact that the tragedy was nothing to do with the United Kingdom," he said.
"The relatives of those who died are in our thoughts. We hope that the report and the continuing review will bring them some greater understanding of the circumstances of the tragedy," the spokesman concluded.