Air Corps pilots who glided stricken plane back to base among Defence Forces awards recipients

Two Air Corps pilots who glided their aircraft safely to the ground after its engine failed have been recognised by the Defence Forces for averting potentially catastrophic loss of life on the ground.

Lieuts Eoin Blake and Kenneth Godden were among several military personnel to be honoured at the Defence Forces Values Awards.

Other recipients included an Army Ranger Wing team which helped save the lives of their German counterparts following a suicide bomb in Mali, a sergeant major who continued to guide projects while undergoing severe medical treatment and two brothers who honoured the memory of their mother who was killed in the Creeslough explosion in Donegal last year.

On February 26th, 2021, Lieuts Blake and Godden were flying their Pilatus PC-9m two-seater aircraft to Cork on a instruction flight. “As soon as we levelled off at 16,000ft there was a big bang and lots of vibration and oil and smoke,” recalled Lieut Blake, who had just qualified as a flight instructor the previous day.

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Instead of ejecting and leaving their aircraft to crash somewhere over Co Kildare, potentially causing casualties on the ground, the men turned the aircraft around, took it down to 7,000ft and glided it back to Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel, Dublin.

“The training kicked in fairly sharpish. It was one second before we decided to turn back,” said Lieut Blake. He said the aircraft was near the town of Kilcullen when the engine failed.

Pilots train for such situations, said Lieut Blake. “But when you’re training, the engine is working,” he said.

The two pilots were presented with the values award for moral courage for “ensuring potential catastrophic results for the crew and the civilian population were avoided.”

A team of Army Ranger Wing special forces operators who were deployed to Mali as part of the Minusma peacekeeping mission received the award for physical courage for “responding to the detonation of an explosive Device among German colleagues in Mali.”

The team were on a long range patrol with the German-led Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) Task Force on June 25th, 2021 when a pickup truck contained 250kg of explosives crashed through the outer cordon of the German’s temporary base and detonated, injuring many troops.

The Irish team had just left the base and were about 10km when they heard the explosion. They raced back and secured the area before its medics started treating the wounded.

The attackers, a terrorist group linked to al Qaeda, knew what they were doing, the commander of the ARW team said on Monday. They were aiming for a large armoured fuel truck which, if it exploded, would have caused many more injuries.

“There were life threatening injuries,” the officer said. “Everyone there was suffering from some level of trauma.”

The team also had to provide protection and check the perimeter in case of a follow-up attack. They then guided in the helicopters to evacuate the wounded. Around 15 German troops were injured by there were no fatalities.

Cpl Lorraine Byrne was recognised with the respect award “for empathetic guidance, counsel and expert advice to subordinates and superiors within the Defence Forces Training Centre” while Privates Seán and Neil Martin received the integrity award for their “actions and response with family, community and your unit”, following the death of their mother Martina in the Creeslough tragedy.

Flight Sgt Tommy Deveraux received the loyalty award for the “significant time spent undertaking high intensity instructional duties” and the late Sgt Maj Ken Hurley was recognised for his selflessness for progressing projects and supporting colleagues while “living through a period of extreme challenge when undergoing severe medical treatment”.

The overall values award was presented to Cpl Barry Foley for demonstrating all the core values of the Defence Forces.

“Men of Barry’s quality are few and far between. He is a torch bearer who by his example, passes on the positive aspects of our shared culture to the next generation,” his company commander said.

The awards were presented by President of the European Court of Human Rights Síofra O’Leary and Defence Forces Chief of Staff Lieut Gen Sean Clancy.

“You, our values champions, are our role models and leaders by living and working as their embodiment, inspiring trust and enhancing confidence in ourselves and others,” the Chief of Staff told recipients.