Irish authority to have role in Egypt plane crash investigation

Irish authorities have made contact with their counterparts in Egypt offering assistance in the investigation into the crash over the Sinai peninsula of a Russian airliner in which all 224 passengers and crew died.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU), which works independently under the auspices of the Department of Transport, made contact with Egyptian aviation authorities almost as soon as it emerged that the Airbus A321 being flown by Russian airline Kogalymavia under the brand name Metrojet had been registered in Ireland in 2012.

Under international aviation regulations air accident investigations are co-ordinated in the first instance by the country in which the crash has taken place and then the country in which the plane’s registration papers are held.

Other involved countries - such as Russian, in this instance -also have a pivotal role to play in trying to establish a cause and in dealing with the aftermath of a crash.

The AAIU is currently waiting to hear back from the Egyptian authorities as to what role it is likely to have in the investigations which have already started.

The Airbus A321 carried the registration number EI-ETJ when it crashed and had been leased to the Russian airline by Wilmington Trust SP Services, which has an address at George’s Dock in Dublin’s IFSC.

It had its maiden flight on May 27th 1997 and until 2012 it was flown by airlines based in a number of countries in the Middle East before first being registered in Ireland in 2012.

Attempts to contact Wilmington Trust SP Services for comment were unsuccessful.