Aer Lingus Flight 712

Infobox Airliner accident|name=Aer Lingus Flight 712
Date=March 24 1968
Type=In-flight airliner structural failure
Site=St George's Channel near Wexford, Ireland
Fatalities=61
Injuries=0
Aircraft Type=Vickers Viscount 803
Operator=Aer Lingus
Tail Number=EI-AOM
Passengers=57
Crew=4
Survivors =0

Flight 712, operated by Aer Lingus crashed en route from Cork to London on March 24, 1968 killing 61 passengers and crew. The plane, a Vickers Viscount 803 named "St. Phelim", crashed into the sea off Tuskar Rock, County Wexford. Although the investigation into the crash lasted two years, a cause was never determined. There has long been popular speculation that the plane was shot down by a British experimental missile [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,323526,00.html] . Aberporth in West Wales was at the time the most advanced British missile testing station.

In the years since the crash several witnesses have come forward with evidence to support the missile theory, including a crew member of the British ship HMS "Penelope". He claims that part of the wreckage that was recovered by "Penelope" was secretly removed to the UK.Fact|date=February 2007

However, in 2002 a review process conducted by the AAIU (Air Accident Investigation Unit) disclosed that Aer Lingus paperwork relating to a routine maintenance inspection carried out on the aircraft in December 1967 was found to be missing in 1968. Moreover, a large body of research was done by the investigators after the accident regarding the maintenance operating plan used for EI-AOM and defects on the aircraft found during analysis of the maintenance records. This research was not referred to in the 1970 report. A new board of investigation was set up by the Irish government and found that the crash was the consequence of a chain of events starting with a failure to the left tail-plane caused by metal fatigue, corrosion, flutter or a bird strike, with the most likely cause being a flutter-induced fatigue failure of the elevator trim tab operating mechanism.

In March 2007 Retired RAF Squadron Leader Eric Evers who was previously chief flying instructor with the British military in RAF Little Rissington, made a claim that the accident was in fact caused by a mid-air collision between the Aer Lingus Vickers Viscount and a French-built military aircraft which was training with the Irish Air Corps . Squadron Leader Evers maintains that he has evidence to prove that a Fouga Magister trainer accidentally collided with the Aer Lingus aircraft as it was responding to a request to check the status of the Viscount's undercarriage, which had failed to lock in position correctly. All 61 people, including the four crew, on board the Aer Lingus Viscount Cork-London Heathrow flight were lost in the subsequent crash off Tuskar Rock, but according to Sqn Leader Evers information, the two pilots in the trainer survived by ejecting and parachuting to safety. Sqn Leader Evers maintains that both the French and Irish authorities colluded in a subsequent cover-up, and the Fouga Magister wreckage may still be on the seabed off the Co Wexford coast.Lorna Siggins, The Irish Times 23 March 2007 [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0323/1174528406125.html] ]

His claims have been disputed by Capt Mike Reynolds, retired sea captain and aviator and author of Tragedy at Tuskar Rock, published in 2003.Lorna Siggins, The Irish Times 23 March 2007 [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0323/1174528406125.html] ]

Capt Reynolds upholds the findings of the 2002 official report by French and Australian experts which ruled out the possibility that the Viscount was hit by another aircraft or missile. The international study, on which he worked as Irish assistant, concluded that the cause may have been as a result of structural failure of the aircraft, corrosion, metal fatigue, "flutter" or bird strike.Lorna Siggins, The Irish Times 23 March 2007 [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0323/1174528406125.html] ]

An Irish Defence Forces spokesman described the claims of Squadron Leader Evers as "spurious" and said there was no evidence that an Irish Air Corps plane was in the vicinity at the time.Lorna Siggins, The Irish Times 23 March 2007 [http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/ireland/2007/0323/1174528406125.html] ]

The spokesman said that Fouga Magister did not "come into service" with the Irish Air Corps until 1976. However he could not comment on why a Fouga Magister was listed as one of the Air Corps aircraft in service in 1968, as stated in appendix 5.2.g of the 2002 report.

Flight Crew

Captain: Bernard 'Barney' O'Beirne. Born 11 March 1933. Captain O'Beirne was aged 35 years. He had served in the Air Corps from March 1953 until March 1956 when he joined Aer Lingus. He completed technical courses on D.C.3, F.27, Viscount, Boeing 720-048 and 707. His total flying time was 6,683 hrs. of which 1,679 were on Viscounts. He held a valid Airline Transport Pilots Licence (No. 126) endorsed for command on Viscount aircraft and had been medically examined and passed fit on 2 January 1968. He also held a Flight Navigators licence (No. 8) issued to him on 13 October 1961.

First Officer: Paul Heffernan. Born 23 October 1945. Mr. Heffernan was aged 22 years. He did his flying training with Airwork Services Training at Perth, 1965 joining Aer Lingus the following year as a second officer. He held a British Commercial Pilots licence, had successfully completed his conversion course and passed the technical examination for Viscounts. On June 9, 1966, he was issued with an Irish Commercial Pilots licence with Viscount endorsement and instrument rating. His total flying time was 1,139 hours of which 900 was on Viscounts. Paul was on one of his last flights as First Officer as a few days before Flight 712, he had been granted a Senior Commercial Pilots Licence and wrote to the Department of Transport and Power that he would call for this licence some time during the week commencing March 25. He was never to collect it.

Anne Kelly

Co. Wexford

Mary Coughlan

Mary, 21, had accepted her wings just a month before the air disaster.

Passenger List

*IRL: 35
*SUI: 9
*BEL: 6
*GBR: 5

Passengers - Alphabetical Listing

Archer, Katherine - Irish

Arnold, Dennis - British

Baeck, Roger - Belgian

Beck, Hans - Swiss

Burke, Hannah - Irish

Bryan, Elizabeth - Irish

Cowhig, Michael - Irish

Cox-Ife, William - British

Creyelman, Jacques - Belgian

Dann, Sheila - Irish

Dann, Teresa - Irish

Delaney, Rory - Irish

Dreyfus, Pierre - Swiss

Dwane, Thomas - Irish

Faveurs, Edmund - Belgian

Gahlin, Sven - Irish

Gahlin, Karin - Irish

Gallivan, Eileen - Irish

Gallivan, Marion - Irish (16)

Gallivan, Paula - Irish (2)

Gangelhoff, Joseph - American

Gangelhoff, Mary - American

Hegarty, Fr. Edward - Irish

Hinderer, Dr. Max - Swiss

Jephson, Brigadier Maurice - Irish

Jephson, Eileen - Irish

Jurgens, Theodor - Swiss

Long, Anthony - Irish

Meyer, Curt - Swiss

Mulcahy, Dr. Noel - Irish

McCarthy, Christopher - Irish

McCarthy, Rita - Irish

McCarthy, Jeremiah - Irish ( infant )

McCormick, Neil - Irish

Newey, Dorothy - Irish

Nunan, Richard - Irish

Nyhan, John - Irish

O'Brien, Edward - Irish

O'Calaghan, Patrick - Irish

O'Calaghan, Bridget - Irish

O'Halloran, James - Irish

O'Halloran, Josephine - Irish

O'Herlihy, Maura - Irish

O'Mahony, Nora - Irish

O'Rourke, James - Irish

Quinlan, Ellen - British

Schwartz, Paul - Belgian

Shorten, Thomas - British

Shorten, Ann - British

Sless, Ruth - Irish

Speleers, Albert - Belgian

Vastenavondt, Marcel - Belgian

Waeckerling, Dr. Roland - Swiss

Waeckerling, Madeline - Swiss

Walls, Desmond - Irish

Weiss, Dr. Rudolf - Swiss

Zimmerman, Ernest - Swiss

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Andes/9522/ Mystery of Aer Lingus Flight 712]
* [http://www.aaiu.ie/AAIUviewitem.asp?id=5036&lang=ENG&loc=1280 Air Accident Investigation Unit report]
* [http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=5656&lang=ENG&loc=1719 Press release announcing new investigation of crash]
* [http://www.transport.ie/viewitem.asp?id=4106&lang=ENG&loc=1079 Press release summarising findings of new investigation]

Notes