THE DEPARTMENT of Transport has confirmed that publication of the official report into an air crash in which two Air Corps pilots died in 2009 has been halted on the orders of Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar.
Capt Derek Furniss (32), a flight instructor from Rathfarnham, Dublin, and Cadet David Jevens (22), from Glynn,Co Wexford, died instantly on October 12th, 2009, when their two-seater turboprop plane hit a Galway hillside on a training exercise.
A highly technical report into the crash, which lists its probable cause, was completed two months ago by the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) but its publication has been prevented by the Minister for Transport.
His ban on publication followed the application of a previously unused clause in Irish air-crash legislation. It was invoked by an appeal lodged by a so-far unidentified person.
“One of the interested parties is appealing. The department is precluded from providing any further information regarding their identity,” a spokesperson for Mr Varadkar said. “We cannot comment on the grounds of appeal. However, the grounds to seek a notice of re-examination are set out under part III, section 19 of the SI 205 of 1997.”
Section 19 allows for an appeal for a re-examination if a crash report’s findings “appear to reflect adversely on the person’s reputation or on the reputation of any person, living or dead”.
An executor, administrator or other personal representative may also lodge an appeal.
Cadet Jevans’s parents, Donal and Liz Jevans, yesterday said they would like to see the report published as soon as possible because it may prevent “some other parents enduring unnecessary grief”.
Mr Jevans said he could not elaborate on their comments, or on the contents of the report, a copy of which he has seen. However, he denied he or his wife had lodged the appeal which triggered the ban on publication.
“Any comment I make could jeopardise the completion of this report for ever. I am legally constrained from saying anything.”
Leslie Byrne, the former partner of Captain Furniss, said she was also legally constrained from comment. She said she could neither confirm nor deny that she had lodged the appeal.
An interim report into the accident published in November 2009 said no fault could then be found with the aircraft.
Most of the AAIU’s findings have emerged from an examination of “black boxes” recovered from the wreckage. Investigators would have been able to reconstruct the aircraft’s last moments of flight from digital data recovered from the flight data recorder.
Communications between the pilots would have been obtained from a cockpit voice recorder.
The invoked clause 19 is relatively unique in international air-crash legislation where the main objective is to prevent further accidents, rather than lay blame at anybody’s door. In the US, for example, an appeal is usually only lodged after publication of a report by the National Transportation Safety Board, and then only on the grounds of technical inaccuracy rather than any damage to a person’s reputation.
Several complicated and lengthy layers of re-examination can result from a section 19 appeal. In extreme instances Mr Varadkar can appoint a public tribunal with judicial powers.
“No decision has been made on whether a re-examination will take place or not. However, any re-examination would be held in private,” Mr Varadkar’s press officer said.
The department said safety recommendations have been made by the report. “All interested parties have received the final report, and all appropriate parties who have been issued safety recommendations are aware of and responding to same.”