Inquest hears Ballyedmond’s pilot warned about fog danger

An inquest into the death in a helicopter crash of businessman Lord Ballyedmond, formerly Dr Edward Haughey, has heard his pilot had warned twice that the aircraft should leave earlier to avoid dense fog.

The helicopter crashed in thick fog on the night of March 13th, 2014, shortly after it took off from one of the industrialist’s homes in Norfolk.

The only other passenger on board, Lord Ballyedmond's foreman, Declan Small, from Mayobridge, Co Down, also died in the crash, alongside pilot Carl Dickerson and co-pilot Lee Hoyle.

When he died at the age of 70, Lord Ballyedmond was Northern Ireland's richest man, with a personal fortune of about £650 million as a result of his pharmaceuticals company Norbrook Laboratories.

Ciara Cunningham, who was Lord Ballyedmond's diary secretary, told Norfolk coroner's court in Norwich yesterday that Mr Dickerson, the chief pilot, had first called the businessman's office after 9am on the day of the crash.

Heavy fog

He said heavy fog was forecast for Norwich later and they would have to leave by 6.30pm to avoid it on their return to Lord Ballyedmond’s home in Rostrevor, Co Down.

Ms Cunningham said that when the pilot called again after 5pm, she wrote down the message: “Have checked the weather. Latest time to leave is 7pm unless the fog starts to come in more quickly.”

The Agusta Westland AW139 did not leave until 7.22pm and crashed in thick fog shortly after take-off.

Ms Cunningham said that she or the businessman's personal assistant Madeleine Irwin would have ensured Lord Ballyedmond would have received both messages. Both women said it would have been out of character for him to have ignored such warnings because he respected his pilots' expertise.

“There were always cases where the pilots rang to say we should leave earlier or not at all,” Ms Cunningham said. “Lord Ballyedmond would always have accepted what he was told.”

The businessman’s son, Edward Haughey, said his father had flown from Northern Ireland to Norfolk that day to oversee the hanging of pictures at Gillingham Hall, which he was refurbishing.

“It would be difficult to remember my father without talking about success and achievement,” Mr Haughey said.

“He was funny, he was energetic, he was extremely kind and generous, often behind closed doors. He was decent and he was driven.”

Mr Haughey spoke to his father by phone at Gillingham Hall minutes before the helicopter’s fatal take-off. He said Lord Ballyedmond was in good spirits, joking in a “schoolboyish” way about “the boys”, as he called the pilots.

‘Bad weather’

“He said that the boys had told him he had to leave because there was bad weather on the way. He said, ‘I’d better do what I’m told or I’ll get in trouble with the boys’,” Mr Haughey said.

Coroner Jacqueline Lake said the inquest, which is expected to continue until Friday, would focus on the events leading up to the helicopter's departure, the weather conditions, the training of pilots and regulations covering such flights in private helicopters.

Born Edward Haughey, he was appointed to Seanad Éireann by Albert Reynolds in 1994 and served there until 2002. He was nominated to the House of Lords by the Ulster Unionist Party in 2004 but later took the Conservative whip.

Although he lived in Ballyedmond Castle, in Rostrevor, Co Down, he also owned Gillingham Hall, a 17th-century house on 55 acres in Norfolk, as well as a castle in Cumbria and houses on London’s Belgrave Square and Dublin’s Fitzwilliam Square.