February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Andrew Bushe
DUBLIN — A new probe into the 1968 Tuskar Rock air disaster is expected to challenge long-held beliefs that the Aer Lingus viscount spiraled into the sea off Wexford after it was hit by a British surface-to-air missile or target drone.
Extra work as a result in new witnesses coming forward and a more comprehensive review of worldwide crashes involving Viscounts have resulted in a delay in the delivery of the investigation report.
Two top international aviation experts had been expected to report next week, but a Department of Public Enterprise spokesman said their findings won’t be delivered until September.
The experts were appointed last year by Minister Mary O’Rourke to carry out a fresh investigation of the country’s worst-ever aviation disaster, which resulted in the death of all 61 passengers and crew.
The new probe was ordered after a review of files on the crash raised questions about missing Aer Lingus maintenance logs and other files that the minister described as "deeply disturbing."
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The focus of the review by the experts has now switched to the plane’s air-worthiness and a possible structural failure.
The 10-year-old St. Phelim viscount was on a morning flight from Cork to London on March 26, 1968 when it went down.
The victims were Irish, British, American, Swiss, Swedish and Belgian. Only 14 bodies were recovered.
As is customary with air accident investigations, the aircraft and engine manufacturers will be given an opportunity to comment on relevant sections of the draft report before it is finalized for the minister.
A department spokesman said six new witnesses had come forward here and in Britain. They have been interviewed by the investigators, Colin Torkington, from Australia, and Yves Le Mercier, from France.
"They have also spent a lot of time looking at previous crashes of Viscounts and have gone into a lot of detail to check for similarities with what happened here."
Up to the end of 1995, 139 Viscount crashes were reported. There were fatalities in 66 of these, with a total loss of 1,573 lives.
A 1970 inquiry failed to establish the cause of the Tuskar tragedy but put forward the theory that it might have been caused by a plane, stray missile or drone.
"There is evidence which could be construed as indicative of the possible presence of another aircraft or airborne object in the vicinity, which, by reason of collision, or by its proximity causing an evasive maneuver to be made, or by its wake turbulence, might have been the initiating cause of an upsetting maneuver resulting in the Viscount entering a spin or spiral dive.
"There is no substantiating evidence of such a possibility, but it cannot be excluded for it is compatible with all the presently available evidence," the 1970 report said.
The theory put forward by the accident investigator, R.W. O’Sullivan, in those two paragraphs led to more than 30 years of conspiracy theories.
The minister, who received an oral briefing from the investigators, said they would "challenge the assumptions" in the 1970 report.
The minister will bring the report to the Cabinet and then meet the relatives of those who died before making it public. It is then expected to go before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport.