http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/frontpage/2008/1027/1225061091185.html?via=mr
When I heard on the news that a small aircraft with four people on board went missing over Wicklow on Saturday, I was hopeful that there would be survivors. I thought, well maybe they crash landed on open ground or their speed at impact might not have been too high and perhaps they would hit land at a slight angle and glide to a stop.
This plane, owned and flown by Mr. Sharif Booz, left England at about 10am on Saturday morning, October 25th. It was due to arrive in Kilrush airfield in Kildare about 12.30pm later the same day. However it crashed into a mountain not far from it’s destination sometime around 12.30pm. It was not reported missing however until 6pm that day, over five hours after it should have arrived at the airfield. Dublin air traffic control was in contact until about mid day before handing the plane over to Kilrush airfield. The operator of the airfield had no confirmation of the plane arriving that day so was not looking out for it and apparently had no contact with it.
There was some minor searching done using patrol cars in the area on Saturday evening. The plane lay undiscovered until 10am on the Sunday morning when search and rescue teams found it partially buried in bog. It was located in a remote area of west Wicklow between the villages of Hollywood and Donard. The weather the previous day and night was very wet and windy and cold. This probably was a factor in the crash. Sadly, all four occupants were dead. I thought this was odd, the passenger section of the plane was relatively intact which would suggest the passengers would have a good chance of survival.
So the plane lay on the mountain for about 22 to 23 hours before it was found at 10am on Sunday morning. It was 6pm on Saturday when it was reported missing so it was knowingly missing for about 16 hours and took two and a half hours to reach from when the search started at first light on the Sunday morning.
I think this leaves a lot of questions to be answered…. I just hope they are all answered by the IAA investigation, particularly what was the time and cause of death of each of the passengers and is there no system of confirming whether or not an aircraft has completed its intended journey so that emergency services can be alerted immediately in the event of an accident or an aircraft going missing?
Condolences to the families of those who died.
