Co-pilot with airline 'two weeks'

The mother of the co-pilot who died in the Cork airport crash yesterday has said her son only started working for the Manx2 airline two weeks ago.

Ann Cantle, from Sunderland in northeast England, said her son Andrew (27) “lived for aircraft” and had shown interest in being a pilot from a very early age - drawing pictures, building models and frequently keeping an eye on the sky.

He studied aviation technology and pilot studies at Salford University in Manchester and was more recently living in York with his girlfriend, whom he met while in college.

Ms Cantle said Andrew began volunteering on the RNLI Sunderland lifeboat crew at 16 and that he knew the risks associated with flying but did not consider it a dangerous profession.

"He was like an all action hero basically," she told RTÉ's  News at One. "His second choice after being a commercial pilot was to be a winchman on a helicopter."

Ms Cantle said her husband read a story online saying a Manx2 plane had crashed in Cork and that they immediately thought of her son, who was supposed to be piloting a Royal Mail flight.

She said they were given a “glimmer of hope” when they heard there had been survivors and hoped this meant it was not his plane but that a call to the airline confirmed their fears.