AN AER Lingus aircraft engineer has created a new world record for inserting rivets in a piece of sheet-aluminium and now hopes to be included in the prestigious Guinness Book of World Records.
Conor McCarthy, who is employed by Aer Lingus at Shannon airport, punched a hole in the previous record, held by a man from Belfast, who managed to insert 11,200 rivets in nine hours.
Mr McCarthy had aimed to beat that record by 1,345 rivets in less time and at 8am yesterday, at an Aer Lingus maintenance hangar at Shannon, the Limerick man knuckled down for his attempt.
He used a pre-punched 8ft by 4ft piece of aluminium sheet and, using rivets, created a mosaic in the shape of the Aer Lingus logo from the 1930s.
In the end Mr McCarthy inserted 12,613 rivets in five hours and 32 minutes, smashing the previous record.
“It was a long haul but worth it. Now it’s for the judges at Guinness to adjudicate and confirm that we have a new record.”