The remains of two Air Corps pilots, killed when their training flight crashed at Cornamona last night, have been removed from the site to University Hospital Galway.
The men, named as Captain Derek Furniss (32) and Cadet David Jevens (22), were manning a two-seater training plane that came down about five miles west of Cong village just before 6pm.
Initial investigations into their deaths are expected to take between two and three days to complete, a Defence Forces spokesman said today.
Two separate investigations by the Defence Forces and the aviation authority began this morning at the crash site approximately three kilometres from Maam Cross, at Cornamona, Co Galway.
The spokesman said investigators have located the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the flight.
Earlier, bomb disposal experts had to be called in to make the wreckage safe before investigators could move on to the scene. The plane was fitted with ejector seats triggered by explosives which had to be cleared before the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) and Defence Forces could start their investigations.
A spokeswoman for the Irish Aviation Authority said a local woman had raised the alarm after a loud bang was heard in the area where three Air Corps aircraft had been flying. “At around 6pm a woman rang the air traffic control in Shannon to report that a plane had gone low overhead and that she heard a loud bang immediately after.”
The other two Pilatus PC 9 aircraft and crew landed safely at Galway Airport, where all three aircraft had been due to refuel shortly after 6pm. The planes had taken off at 5.45pm from Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, Co Dublin, for their training flights across the country. The plane that went down was reported missing about 35 minutes after takeoff.
After air traffic control at Shannon was notified and an Irish Coast Guard helicopter was dispatched from Shannon. The wreckage was then located in Crumlin east.
Captain Furniss joined the Defence Forces in October 1994. He had served as a qualified pilot since 1996 and a flight instructor for the last 10 years. Capt Furniss amassed over 3,000 flight hours and was the chief flight instructor on the Pilatus aircraft and member of the Air Corps PC-9 display team. Originally from Ballinteer in Dublin, Capt Furniss lived with his partner in the capital.
Cadet Jevens joined the Defence Forces as an Air Corps cadet in 2006 and was at the advanced stages of flight training on the PC-9. He had accumulated more than 160 flight hours and 50 simulator hours over the past three years flight training. He was due for commissioning as a pilot later this year. David was single and from Glynn, Co Wexford.
As the investigation continues into the causes of the crash of the Pilatus PC-9 last night, General Officer Commanding the Air Corps, Brigadier General Ralph James summed up the mood at the moment by saying:
General Officer Commanding the Air Corps, Brigadier General Ralph James met the Furniss family last night and the Jevens family today to extend sympathies on behalf of the Defence Forces.
Brig Gen James said the corps is “devastated” by the loss and described the mood in the force as being “very somber”.
He said: “Their loss is felt deeply here in Casement but also within the families I have met and the communities they are from.”
A spokesman for the force asked people to respect the families' privacy. While funeral arrangements for the two men are a matter primarily for the relatives "every assistance" is being provided by Air Corps personnel, he said.
As a mark of respect the Defence Forces annual gala concert, scheduled for this Saturday at the National Concert Hall, has been postponed until the New Year.