The remains of two Air Corps pilots who were killed when their aircraft crashed into a hillside in Connemara earlier this week have been brought to their homes ahead of their funerals tomorrow and Saturday.
Cadet David Jevens (22) remains were brought to his home in Glynn, Co Wexford while Capt Derek Furniss’ (32) remains were taken to his home in Rathfarnam.
Both pilots will be buried with full military honours.
Requiem Mass for Cadet Jevens will take place at 11am tomorrow at St. Alphonsus Church, Barntown, Co Wexford with burial afterwards in the church grounds.
A memorial service for Capt Furniss will take place next Saturday at noon at St John the Evangelist Church, Ballinteer Road, Dublin, with burial afterwards at Kilmashogue cemetery.
Last night the Taoiseach and the Minister for Defence were among those who attended a prayer service at Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, for the pilots.
Among the 400 people inside the church last night were family, colleagues of Capt Furniss from the flight training school, colleagues of Cadet Jevens from the 27th Air Corps Cadet Class and friends of the two men, Defence Forces chief of staff Lieut Gen Dermot Earley, GOC Air Corps Brig Gen Ralph James and Capt Brian Walsh, representing President McAleese, who is in Luxembourg.
The bodies remained at the church overnight with colleagues and friends visiting through the night.
The wreckage of the Swiss-built Pilatus PC-9 training aircraft was taken by Air Corps recovery vehicles to Gormanston, Co Meath, yesterday evening , where the Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) will conduct its inquiry into causes of the crash last Monday night.
The AAIU investigators have already conducted a preliminary survey of the crash site in the remote valley at Crimlin East, near Cornamona, Co Galway, and sent a team to Shannon to review the radar data from the flight. The plane was emitting a transponder code, which would be recorded on radar tapes and would map the plane’s route from Baldonnel to Connemara last Monday evening.
Flight and cockpit voice recorders have already been recovered from the scene, and an Air Corps AW-139 helicopter undertook a number of flights to deliver sections of the wreckage from Crimlin east to the GAA grounds at Cornamona.