The air accident expert leading the investigation into Friday's helicopter crash in Co Longford has said it was "outrageous" that members of the public removed pieces of the wreckage from the site.
The Inspector of Accidents at the Department of Enterprise's air accident investigation unit, Mr Frank Russell, said he and a colleague spent 12 hours on Friday searching fields in Moyne, Co Longford, on the direction of gardai, local authority workers and other reliable witnesses who had seen bits of debris.
"We gradually realised to our astonishment and outrage that parts of the helicopter had been removed from the crash site," he said. "It was an outrageous waste of our time and the time of the gardai to be searching for something that was no longer there."
The pilot and passenger in the two-seater Robinson 22 helicopter were killed when it crashed at Moyne, near the village of Ballinamuck, at 11.10 a.m.
In response to a public appeal through the media, pieces of debris have been handed in to Longford Garda station.
"In my experience in Ireland, we have not come across a crash site where parts of an aircraft were removed," Mr Russell said. "It was the first time and a regrettable first time. This was an unfortunate development, which I hope will not happen again."
Garda Supt Tom Murphy believes people may have picked up pieces of debris and kept them as souvenirs. Among the pieces of the aircraft handed to gardai on Saturday night was an important part of the rear rotary blade.
Debris from the aircraft was scattered over a number of fields, but the accident inspectors were aware by Friday evening that a number of important parts were missing.
"Hopefully, people will continue to hand in pieces of the aircraft to the gardai - nothing is insignificant to us," Mr Russell said.
The inspectors will begin work today to try to establish the cause of the crash. All collected debris has been brought to an Air Corps hangar at Gormanston, Co Meath, where the team will sift through it. Some pieces will be technically examined, while others will be sent away for laboratory analysis.
If an inherent fault is found, the inspectors are obliged by international agreements to issue safety warrants to the aircraft's owners and manufacturers.