FATHER'S REACTION:THE FATHER of one of the Irish women on board the missing aircraft yesterday said he believed his daughter was dead.
Aisling Butler’s father John told Press Association: “We know Aisling is gone, we are sure of that,” he said. “It is just about trying to live now, I have to live for my wife and my only other daughter.”
When he heard about the plane he initially thought Aisling’s flight was due in the following day but decided to check the travel details in his deleted e-mails.
“When I opened it up a nightmare opened up as well,” he said.
Mr Butler said his daughter, who celebrated her 26th birthday just over two weeks ago, lived for her job as a young doctor and enjoyed life to the full.
She was doing an internship in Tallaght Hospital, Dublin, and was due to move to St James’ Hospital in the city next month.
“She never flunked an exam in her life, nailed every one of them and took it all in her stride as well,” said Mr Butler.
“She was a truly wonderful, exciting girl. I just can’t describe how we feel.”
The young women had gone on a two-week holiday to Brazil to visit other college friends who were travelling on to Australia.
Eileen Doherty, a family friend, said Aisling’s mother Evelyn was seriously injured many years ago, although she has recovered. “I always felt the Lord put a doctor in that family to look after Evelyn, and now she’s gone,” she said. “She was such a lovely, cheerful, happy girl. Evelyn loved going to Dublin to see her.”
Fr Tom Corbett, parish priest of Roscrea, visited the Butler family last night. "It is an enormous tragedy for the family and it will have a huge impact on their lives ... There is profound shock in the parish at the news, and a sense of great anguish for the family," he told The Irish Times. – (PA)