Seanad Éireann debate -
Thursday, 26 Mar 1998

Vol. 154 No. 17

Adjournment Matters. - Tuskar Rock Air Crash.

Mr. Walsh

I ask the Minister for Public Enterprise to reopen the investigation into the crash of the Aer Lingus Viscount in the vicinity of the Tuskar Rock on 24 March 1968, particularly in the light of new evidence that has become available. On that Sunday morning the St. Phelim on flight EI 712 left Cork headed for London. The pilot was Barney O'Beirne, who spent his early years in New Ross. One of the passengers on the plane was a Mr. D.P. Walls who had managed Albatros Fertilisers, a main industry in New Ross. They were just two of the 61 passengers and crew who lost their lives.

The crash was investigated at the time and the report of the investigation was inconclusive. The last message from the airplane, which had been flying at 17,000 feet, indicated that it was spinning and falling rapidly at 12,000 feet. Officially, the cause of the disaster is unknown and various questions have arisen over the intervening 30 years as to whether it was due to malfunction, another aircraft or an event which caused the airplane to take diversionary action. There is a suggestion that there may have been an inherent failure in the Viscount and that the tailplane may have become dislodged when it took rapid diversionary action.

There is also a question as to whether the airplane was shot down by a missile? Suspicion as to this latter cause has fallen on the Aberporth missile firing station in Dyfed in Wales. The target range used unmanned drone target aircraft at which to target missiles. The British Ministry of Defence has always claimed that Aberporth was closed on the day in question.

There is a body of opinion which says that after a lapse of 30 years there is no need to reopen the investigation. However, that displays a disregard for those who were bereaved and who have sought consistently to find out the cause of the crash. It also displays a disregard for air traffic safety because by not identifying the cause we may not take steps to prevent a repetition of the incident.

Compelling new evidence has been brought to light through good investigative journalism. Compliments were paid earlier to the journalism which has brought the National Irish Bank saga to public attention and this case is another example of good investigative journalism. It deserves to be complimented and it contrasts with other more cynical efforts. Mr. John Gilbert, a former chief petty officer on the British Navy frigate Penelope has said recovered wreckage was brought to Britain. He has publicly affirmed that this took place. That was not previously admitted and was not, I understand, available to the original investigator.

It was also highlighted that the British Navy patrolled the area of the crash for the first 48 hours. Not only did it control the area, but it also turned away other salvage and search vessels approaching the area. Any wreckage which was subsequently found was discovered in the area from which the vessels had been turned away initially. There was a report of wreckage being recovered near Bannow, which now appears may have come from a drone target aircraft, given the shape and colour of the pieces recovered. There are further reports, which would not have been available at the time, of Territorial Army activity at Aberporth on that day, including either an artillery or gunnery unit, and that they left very hurriedly.

Two years ago it emerged that there had been technical problems at Aberporth which had not been highlighted before. The technical problems were of a nature which at least provides circumstantial evidence as to a possible cause, which was that missiles were failing to lock on to their targets. That would a recipe for hitting other targets which they did not intend to hit. Today, I was told by somebody who had a relative working at Baldonnel that he consistently stated during his lifetime that the wreckage which came to Baldonnel seemed to indicate the plane had been shot down and that was likely to be the main cause of the accident. The log books of two British Navy vessels in the area of the crash at the time and attached to Aberporth are missing and have never been produced. The same applies to log books from Aberporth itself.

When we combine the new evidence with the failure to provide information, it raises a compelling case for a further investigation 30 years later to try once and for all to find the root cause so as to put the matter to rest. These compelling reasons to reopen the case should also include a search for the truth. If politics or Government is about anything, it is about the search for the truth. There have been allegations in the past, unfounded or otherwise, that some collusion may have taken place, certainly on the British side and maybe even in conjunction with the Irish Government, in the failure to identify a cause. Another compelling reason is the public interest. The truth and the public interest are at stake, not to mention the Government's duty to care for its citizens. I hope the matters which have come to light recently on the 30th anniversary of the crash will be considered by the Minister with a view to a preliminary investigation to establish whether a fuller inquiry is merited.

Minister of State at the Department of Health and Children (Dr. Moffatt)

I thank Senator Walsh for raising this matter. I am sure he is aware of the thorough investigation carried out by the then Department of Transport and Power into this tragic accident, the report of which was published in 1970.

I will begin by quoting the final conclusion of the report: "There is not enough evidence available on which to reach a conclusion of reasonable probability as to the initial cause of this accident". I will now turn to the Senator's question. If by new evidence he is referring to recent television and newspaper articles regarding the possible involvement of another aircraft, missile or airborne object, then I advise him that essentially none of this is new.

I specifically refer the Senator to the section of the report where such a possibility is discussed. The report states:

. that while Viscount EI-AOM was in normal cruising flight at 17,000' and within 6 minutes of reaching Strumble Head, another aircraft, which could have been a manned or unmanned aeroplane or a missile, passed in close proximity, possibly even colliding with the tail of the Viscount, causing an upset which led to a manoeuvre which was either a spin or a spiral dive from which the Viscount was recovered in a disabled condition, to fly thereafter for approximately 10 minutes over the sea before control was finally lost.

The other aircraft could have been the one seen over Fethard-on-Sea, and might have fallen in the sea near the Saltee Islands.

In considering this very speculative theory, attention must be given to a number of matters which discount its credibility.

These include the fact that no aircraft, civil or military, manned or unmanned, were reported, or known to have been in the area at the relevant times, nor was any aircraft other than EI-AOM reported missing on that day.

The missile and target ranges on the Welsh coast are closed on Sundays, and were known to be inoperative on Sunday 24 March 1968.

No aircraft carriers were operating in the area.

The altitude of 17,000' at which EI-AOM was cruising is considered unlikely to be used by military aircraft.

The manoeuvre of recovering a loaded Viscount aeroplane from a spin or a spiral dive would require a very remarkable feat of airmanship on the part of the pilots. In fact there is only one known cases in which this was effectively accomplished during a test flight by expert test pilots. Even in that case, the airframe suffered some distortion of the tail unit.

It is difficult to account for the lack of communications during the presumed 10 minutes before the final catastrophe. The aircraft may have been too low for V.H.F. communication with ground stations, but if there were transmissions they should have been picked up by other aircraft.

On account of these matters, the hypothesis must remain in the realm of speculation and on present evidence cannot be given a higher status than a remote possibility.

I should like to draw attention to this report and to the detailed appendices to it which have, since its publication, been available for inspection by interested parties. The appendices, numbering in excess of 150 pages, give details of: the search and recovery operation; transcripts of tape recordings of radio exchanges between the Viscount St. Phelim and the air traffic control services of Cork, Shannon and London; meteorological data; investigation of the recovered wreckage, including the airframe, engines and propellers; investigation of auto pilot; summary of witness statements, maps of witnesses locations and photographs.

These records, which have been available since 1970 in what is now the Department of Public Enterprise, illustrate the great lengths to which the officials of the Department at the time went to establish the cause of this accident. It is important to make clear that the purpose of aircraft accident investigation, which like all international aviation activity is governed by the International Civil Aviation Convention, ICAO, specifically Annex 13 to the convention, is to try to establish the cause of the accident in order to prevent a similar accident or a reoccurrence. It is not the purpose of the investigation to establish blame or liability. A large passenger aircraft accident is an international evident by its very nature and, consequently, several states may have rights and obligations, that is, the state of manufacture and the state of registry.

In the case of St. Phelim, Ireland as the state of operator and of registry was responsible under international convention for holding an investigation and publishing a report, which was done. In carrying out this obligation, help in the search phase of the operation was given by the UK in accordance with international convention. At the time, our Navy had three corvettes and one only was at sea off Donegal at the time of the accident. As soon as possible, she assumed the role of co-ordinator. The salvage operation was Ireland's responsibility under international convention. This operation was conducted with the assistance of ships of the Royal Navy, which were considered at the time to present the best, if not the only possibility of locating and recovering the wreckage. This regrettably took a long time. Unfortunately, the fuselage of the aircraft, which may have been of considerable help in establishing the cause of the accident, was not recovered intact. The wreckage lay in a depression on the seabed at a depth of 42 fathoms, with the surrounding area at a depth of 39 fathoms, which is over 250 feet. Recovery of the wreckage was a difficult and dangerous task.

The Senator will recall the publicity surrounding the recent fatal accident of TWA 800 off the coast of Long Island. Despite the sophistication of present day technology and an estimated expenditure of $125 million, the investigation has not established the cause of the accident in which over 200 people lost their lives.

The Department has consistently done all that was possible to establish the cause of the loss of the Viscount and, more importantly, the tragic loss of 61 lives 30 years ago. On behalf of the Minister for Public Enterprise, I offer my sympathy to the families of the victims of this tragedy and to the colleagues of the Aer Lingus crew. It is always unsatisfactory when an accident investigation fails to establish clearly the cause of the accident. I appreciate that it is particularly difficult for the families and friends of the victims of such an accident to come to terms with their loss. The Department has always examined any new information as it became available. It did so on several occasions since 1970, including the examination of target aircraft dredged up in 1974 and 1978. However, there was nothing found which could positively be linked to the loss of the St. Phelim.

The Minister for Public Enterprise is willing to republish the report of the investigation and its appendices and to make copies of these documents available in the Oireachtas Library. However, in the absence of new evidence, she is not persuaded to reopen the investigation. Should new evidence become available, the Minister, like her predecessors, would be more than willing to have such evidence examined.

The Seanad adjourned at 6 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Friday, 27 March 1998.