A draft report into the helicopter accident in Tramore last year in which four Aer Corps members died has been released to a number of interested parties. Its contents are confidential. A limited number of copies have been circulated to family members of those who died, along with representatives of Waterford Airport, the manufacturers of the Dauphin helicopter, and a number of other groups.
On Friday 2 July last year, Captains Dave O'Flaherty and Mick Baker, Sergeant Paddy Mooney and Corporal Niall Byrne died as the Dauphin helicopter in which they were flying crashed in thick fog into a high sand-dune in Tramore, County Waterford. It was the single biggest tragedy in the history of the Air Corps.
For the past 10 months, members of the Air Accident Investigation Unit attached to the Department of Enterprise, and the Air Corps, have been compiling what is understood to be one of the most detailed and comprehensive reports ever produced for such an accident in Ireland. A limited number of copies of the report have been circulated to family members of the four men who died, along with representatives of Waterford Airport, the manufacturers of the Dauphin helicopter and a number of other groups.
They have 28 days in which to respond, after which the Minister for Defence will then publish the report, probably in June. Family members are legally restrained from commenting on the contents until then.
