Tuskar Rock Air Disaster

Listen to the report from Today with Pat Kenny on Thursday 28th February 2008.

On March 24th, 1968 the Aer Lingus Viscount St Phelim crashed into the Irish Sea near Tuskar Rock, off Co Wexford. All 61 people on board flying from Cork to London were killed.

No official cause for the crash was ever established.

EI-712: The bare facts - more...
Theory 1: Royal Navy Missile - more...
Theory 2: Metal Fatigue - more...
Theory 3: Mid Air Collision - more...

EI-712: The bare facts

Sunday, March 24th 1968

Flight EI-712 with a Vickers Viscount type 803 turboprop aircraft. Registration sequence EI-AOM and named the 'St.Phelim', the 11 year old aircraft had formerly been owned by KLM. Pilot: Commander Bernard O'Beirne (35), Co-Pilot; First officer Paul K. Heffernan (22)

11.25: Cork Air Traffic Control gave clearance for take off

11.32: Flight EI-712 departed from Cork Airport en route for London with a normal take off. The flight was cleared by Air Traffic Control to proceed at 17,000 feet.

11.38: The 'St. Phelim' had passed through 7,000 feet, clearance on course to Tuskar Rock was given.

11.40: After the flight had reported it was by Youghal at 7,500 feet climbing to 17,000 feet, Air Traffic Control in Cork suggested that if desired, the flight could route direct to Strumble Head in Wales. Shannon Air Traffic Control now instructed the Viscount to divert from its original route to a new heading over the Wales coast.

11.57.07: Commander O'Beirne reports the flight "by Bannow". Flight 712 was now south of Hook Head, Co. Wexford, cruising at 17,000 ft along the designated air corridor between Cork and Tuskar Rock and now passed over to London Air Traffic Control.

11.58.02:  The London controller who was working a BOAC flight, was interrupted with a call (garbled and simultaneous with another call from a different aircraft) "Echo India Alpha Oscar Mike with you".

11.58.10: A call was intercepted from Flight 712's Commander O'Beirne which was interpreted as "Five thousand feet descending spinning rapidly". This was quickly followed by another message '1,000 feet descending, spinning rapidly.'

12:10: London Air Traffic Control advised Shannon Air Traffic Control that they had no radio contact with Flight EI-712.

12:25: Full alert declared.

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The Theories
1) Royal Navy Missile
2) Metal Fatigue
3) New Theory - Mid Air Collision

1) Royal Navy Missile
The 1970 investigation conducted by the Irish Government concluded the possibility that "another aircraft involved is inescapable."  With no other aircraft reported missing speculation centred on a mid air collision with either a missile or a drone aircraft used for missile target practice.

• Frequent missile test firings took place at target drones over the Irish Sea from Aberporth in West Wales.
   
• Several Witnesses in Co. Wexford saw a second aircraft on the morning of March 24th, emerging from a cloud and heard a sonic boom.
   
• Although the Ministry of Defence claimed that Aberporth was closed that Sunday there were suggestions made locally that the Territorial Army may have been test firing missiles that Sunday.
   
• Tests in Aberporth had gone wrong in the past. Missiles were aborted. Drones crashed into civilian areas. In the 1990's an Al Italia flight reported a near miss with a missile.
   
• Several witnesses in the Fethard / Hook Head area saw something travelling at supersonic speeds at right angles to the St Phelim.
   

The Irish Navy vessels were very slow in their response to the crash. The first vessel arrived a full 48 hours after the Viscount entered the water. However, there were at least four Royal Navy Vessels in the Tuskar Rock / Hook Head area during that period. Their actions have given rise to suspicions about a possible Navy cover up. If the St Phelim had been struck by a missile did the Royal Navy use those 48 hours to remove all traces from the scene?

• An RAF Shackleton spotted wreckage or debris off the Saltee Islands that was unlikely to have come from the St Phelim. If not what was it from?
   
• Wreckage found in the water was secretly taken back to the UK. John Giblet, a sailor aboard HMS Penelope claimed that a section of Flight EI-712 undercarriage was taken to a British port instead on an Irish port.
   
• Witnesses in Wexford saw what they thought was a Royal Navy ship removing wreckage from the water. 
   
• The log books of three Royal Navy Vessels in the area cannot confirm or deny the ships movements as they have all gone missing.
   
• A Ministry of Defence official sent the daughter of one of the St Phelim's victims a report suggesting the Royal Navy Frigate HMS Penelope was testing the Sea Dart Missile in the area at that time. The report said that the MOD would deny that a missile fired from the Penelope had struck the St Phelim.
   

The British and Irish governments believe that report to be a fake. Ultimately the theories involving the Penelope come unstuck when photographs of the ship from the time are examined. It has only a conventional gun turret and no obvious missile capability.

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2) Metal Fatigue
In 2000 the then Minister for Public Enterprise, Mary O'Rourke TD, announced that she had appointed international air crash investigators to conduct a study into the available body of evidence and the original investigation procedures pertaining to the crash in 1968 of the Aer Lingus Viscount aircraft off Tuskar Rock. 

This study found that the cause of the collision may have been as a result of structural failure of the aircraft, corrosion, metal fatigue, "flutter" or a bird strike.  The experts, Yves Lemerercier, Manuel Pech and Colin Torkington, also praised the efforts of the Aer Lingus crew in keeping the stricken aircraft flying for 30 minutes after what they termed the "initial triggering factor."

They ruled out the possibility of the involvement of any other aircraft or missile. 

• The report stated: "An initial event, which cannot be clearly identified, is considered to be some form of distress affecting the horizontal tail of the aircraft.  Possible causal factors are metal fatigue, corrosion, flutter (vibration in a control surface which may cause control difficulty and lead to structural failure) or a bird strike."  The "initial event" and the progressive failure of the tailplane adversely affected the stability of the aircraft and according to the report "the aircraft degradation process lasted for around 30 minutes."
   
• Tribute was paid to the flight crew: "It is the International Team's opinion that it was a major achievement for the crew to be able to keep this aircraft flying for more than half an hour, with such poor manoeuvrability characteristics.  This showed remarkable intrinsic and professional level of experience."
   
• The experts ruled out any aircraft or missile being involved. "We have carefully examined all aspects of the tests conducted in the UK ranges and of the sea and air activities performed on that Sunday.  It is our opinion that all theories involving the presence of another aircraft can be rejected."
   
• The study also took issue with the 1970 investigation into the accident and said that report was "deficient" in that "insufficient effort was made to thoroughly reconstruct the track of the aircraft and that pertinent material was excluded."
   
• The experts said that having spoken with witnesses and examined witness statements, they concluded that the aircraft's flight track was not as outlined in the 1970 report. They concluded that about 50 independent witness' statements were consistent with one another and allowed for a "complete (aircraft) track reconstruction and for a technically logical description of the degradation process of EI-AOM."
   
• They concluded that in their opinion the files in relation to the accident should now be closed.

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3) New Theory - Mid Air Collision

• Listen to evidence pointing to a new theory of a Mid Air Collision from Today with Pat Kenny on Thursday 28th February 2008.

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