Separate inquiries by the UN and the Italian air force are under way in south Lebanon into the helicopter crash on Wednesday night which killed an Irish UN peacekeeper, Sgt John Lynch, and four Italian crewmen.
However, it appeared almost certain yesterday that the crash was a result of some mechanical fault or pilot error, rather than the helicopter being attacked. No firing was reported in the area where the accident happened, although artillery and rocket exchanges later took place in other parts of south Lebanon between Hizbullah guerrillas and pro-Israeli militias.
The bodies of Sgt Lynch and the four Italians were taken for postmortems to the Greenberg Institute in Tel Aviv, Israel. It is expected the bodies will be released over the weekend.
The four Italians who died were the pilot, Capt Antonio Sgro, copilot Giuseppe Parisi, warrant officer Massimo Gatti, and crewman Daniel Foneo.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Andrews, travelled to Co Kildare from his holiday in the west of Ireland yesterday to visit Sgt Lynch's family in Newbridge. He was accompanied by the Defence Forces' Chief-of-Staff, Lieut Gen Gerry McMahon.
Sgt Lynch, who was married with two young children, was close to completing a year-long tour of duty as a computer technician at the UNIFIL Headquarters at Naqoura, south Lebanon. He was taking a lift with the Italian crew to the Irish Battalion Headquarters at Tibnin when the accident occurred.
In June Sgt Lynch and two Italian air force personnel were abducted and held prisoner for 12 hours by Hizbullah guerrillas in Beirut while on leave. The guerrillas blindfolded the three, moved them to various locations and interrogated them before freeing them uninjured.
After the ordeal Sgt Lynch returned home on leave to be with his wife, Rosario. He returned to duty in Lebanon last month.
Sgt Lynch is the 38th Irish soldier to die on duty with UNIFIL in nearly 20 years.