The Minister of State, Mr Hugh Byrne, has reasserted his belief that the British government has not revealed all its knowledge of the 1968 Tuskar air crash. The Wexford-based Minister made his comments following an appeal for assistance from international investigators who are conducting a new inquiry into the crash, in which all 61 passengers and crew lost their lives.
The investigators, French Admiral Mr Yves Le Mercier and Viscount aircraft expert Mr Colin Torkington from New Zealand, asked for anyone with previously undisclosed information about the 1968 air disaster to come forward. They are seeking any new information on the last sightings of the plane as it passed over Wexford on its way over the Irish Sea and into UK airspace. They would also like to hear from anybody who saw any other aircraft or any other airborne object in the vicinity at the time.
The Aer Lingus Viscount aircraft was en route to London from Cork when it fell into the sea off the Co Wexford Coast on a clear Sunday morning in March 1968. Earlier this year, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, instituted a new investigation, the Government's third review of evidence surrounding the crash. But she said that concealing the involvement of British aircraft in the crash would have required the silence of a great number of people. However, her Fianna Fail colleague, Mr Byrne, said he still believes the Viscount, the St Phelim, was hit by a British missile, possibly fired during target practice.
Mr Byrne said he had always been critical of the 1970 air-accident report, and he welcomed the investigation which Ms O'Rourke has instigated since her review of the evidence earlier this year. Mr Byrne recalled that, at the time, many Wexford people saw an explosion in the sky and others had heard a loud bang. He also felt it was significant that the plane had been flying close to the Aberporth firing range and he added that "the logbooks of four Royal Navy ships subsequently went missing".
He said it was suspicious that when the salvage operation was being carried out the British Navy had asked local fishermen to search an area now known to be far from the crash site. Mr Byrne added that he felt the British authorities should "come clean with all they know about the crash". Ms O'Rourke told an Oireachtas committee this summer she was "deeply disturbed" by the review of the crash, which found that Aer Lingus paperwork relating to a routine maintenance inspection carried out on the aircraft in December 1967 was missing the following year.
There was concern that the former chief inspector of accidents had not mentioned in his 1970 report that the maintenance inspection report of December 1967 was missing. Concern was also expressed that the certificate of air worthiness, awarded by the Department three weeks before the crash, was not referred to. It was quite incomprehensible that a substantial chronicle of defects associated with the aircraft had been deliberately omitted from the report, Mr Byrne added. Another unsatisfactory element of the 1970 inquiry was that the official who approved the certificate of air worthiness was also the chief investigator, he said.
Anyone who feels they may be able to offer new information are asked to contact the investigators at: The Tuskar Rock Air Crash Investigation, c/o Admiral Yves Le Mercier, Exp Air, SARL, 36 Rue Alphonse Pallu, 78110 Le Vesinet, France. The investigators stress they require reports in writing. Their fax number is 00 33 1 30150980.