Vol. 489 No. 6
215 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will give a full report of her Department's examination in relation to parts of target aircraft dredged up in 1974 and 1978; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9345/98]
The piece of wreckage recovered on 30 May 1974, off the Wexford coast, was examined by an Inspector of Accidents and was identified as a portion of aircraft skin. It measured approximately 7ft × 2ft, and was painted red on one side, with red, white and blue markings of a type used by the Royal Air Force.
Inquiries made at the time by the Air Corps indicated that the wreckage was probably part of a Jindivik target drone. However, the wreckage did not carry any serial numbers, and it was therefore impossible to determine which Jindivik launching resulted in this piece of wreckage.
The Jindivik drones were used at a rate of approximately eight per year for several years. This piece of wreckage could not be linked to any particular Jindivik launching.
The wreckage was further examined by experts from the then Department of Agriculture and Fisheries and from Trinity College, Dublin. These experts agreed that all the marine growth found on the wreckage were those found only in shallow waters, and had originated in the current year. The experts did raise the possibility that the wreckage could have been in "deepish" water for some time, possibly two to four years, and then moved to shallow water where the growth could have taken place. However, no evidence was found to support this possibility.
The wreckage recovered in 1978 was found when a boarding party from the Irish Navy vessel Emer inspected a French trawler off the south east coast of Ireland. The captain of the trawler stated that the wreckage had caught in his nets in a position 52º 13' North, 04º 25' West, which is close to the Welsh coast, in the area of Cardigan Bay. The wreckage was inspected in Haulbowline by an Inspector of Accidents from the then Department of Transport and Power and identified as part of the left hand wing of a Jindivik target drone. The absence of any serial numbers on the wreckage again prevented connecting the wreckage to a specific Jindivik launching.
In summary, there is no evidence to connect either of these pieces of wreckage to the event of 24 March 1968.
216 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will make a full statement in relation to the extra aircraft wheel among the wreckage of the Viscount aircraft which crashed off Tuskar Rock, County Wexford which was put on display to members of the press shortly after the publication of the examiner's report into the accident in 1970. [9346/98]
The statement that an extra aircraft wheel was among the wreckage of the Viscount aircraft which crashed off Tuskar Rock is incorrect. This wheel assembly was found lying on Kilpatrick Strand, Gorey, County Wexford, on Friday 30 January 1970, almost two years after the accident and handed in to the Garda at Gorey. This wheel was then transferred to Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, where the Viscount wreckage was stored, and during testing by the Irish authorities, the wheel was inflated to 50 psi and floated. The good condition of the tyre and wheel assembly indicated that it could not have been in salt water for very long.
Serial number information on the wheel was conveyed to the British authorities and the assembly was confirmed as belonging to a Sea Vixen aircraft, serial number XF578 by the Air Accident Investigation Unit of the Royal Naval Air Service, Lee-on-Solent. It transpired that this aircraft had been lost overboard during an attempted landing on the aircraft carrier, HMS Hermes, on 16 January 1970. The location of this accident was in the St. Georges Channel.
In summary, there is no evidence to connect this piece of wreckage to the event of 24 March 1968.
