THE GOVERNMENT is to award distinguished service medals to the four Air Corps crew who lost their lives while returning from a helicopter rescue mission off Co Waterford almost nine years ago.
The decision to award the highest military honour posthumously was taken by a Defence Forces medals board following years of lobbying by several of the bereaved families. The medals are to be conferred by Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea at a commissioning ceremony at Air Corps headquarters in Baldonnel aerodrome on June 19th.
However, the family of one of the four men says it will not accept the medal until it receives an apology from Mr O’Dea over reported remarks about the case two years ago.
The four – Capt Dave O’Flaherty, Capt Michael Baker, Sgt Paddy Mooney and Cpl Niall Byrne – were returning from the first night rescue mission at the southeast base in the early hours of July 2nd, 1999, when the Dauphin helicopter collided with a sand dune in thick fog.
The official investigation by the Government’s Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) highlighted “serious deficiencies” in the support given to the four crew.
The crew had only learned on July 1st, 1999 – the day the search and rescue base at Waterford Airport was converted to 24-hour cover – that no after-hours air traffic control was to be provided.
Liability was conceded by the Minister for Defence in July, 2003, in a High Court judgment of €1.1 million plus costs in favour of Maria O’Flaherty, widow of the detachment commander, Capt Dave O’Flaherty. The defendants admitted they were fully responsible for the death of her husband and, by implication, the deaths of the three other crew members.
In the final legal judgment, on the death of Capt Baker, the State awarded €35,500 plus costs to Capt Baker’s parents, Tony and Mary Baker, which the couple donated to charity.
The decision to give posthumous decorations has been welcomed by Vincent Byrne, father of the late Cpl Byrne. “Justice is being served,” Mr Byrne said yesterday. “However, the fact that we had to seek it for so long was humiliating, and takes from it a little. It should have been handled honourably from the start.”
Tony Baker, father of Capt Baker, said that he and his wife, Mary, would not be attending the ceremony.
The couple is seeking an apology from Mr O’Dea in relation to remarks attributed to him in a Sunday newspaper two years ago. A spokeswoman for Mr O’Dea said the Minister did not make these remarks.
This is too little, too late,” Mr Baker told The Irish Times.
A 103-page AAIU report identified two active causes, six contributory causes and nine systemic causes for the crash.
It made 25 recommendations and highlighted serious deficiencies in support for the four crewmen.