The widow of a helicopter pilot who was killed along with two colleagues in a crash nearly six years ago is to receive about £500,000 following an accident near the border in Co Louth.
Mary Mulhern, a 46-year-old mother of two, would have won more compensation but a High Court judge in Belfast held that her husband was one-quarter to blame for the crash of the helicopter, which was owned by Norbrook Laboratories in Newry.
Mrs Mulhern, from Steventon in Oxfordshire, sued Norbrook and the estate of Captain John Smyth, from Norwich, who was in command when the helicopter crashed at Omeath in 1996.
Captain Smyth was Norbrook's second pilot and Captain Jeremy Wright, from Cheshire, who also died, was the company's chief pilot.
Captain Kevin Mulhern was at the controls of the US-built Sikorksy helicopter when it crashed after veering off course on a flight from Aldergrove to a private landing pad at Ballyedmond in Co Down.
In a reserved judgement, Lord Justice Campbell referred to a cockpit voice recording and said Captain Smyth had failed to exercise reasonable care and skill in commanding the helicopter.
"Had he done so," said the judge "he would have given Captain Mulhern the bearing on which he was to fly when he told him that he could commence his turn."
The judge said that Captain Mulhern, as an experienced pilot, ought to have insisted on a pre-flight briefing before undertaking the handling of the helicopter on a route with which he was unfamiliar, especially in cloudy and misty conditions.
