A new review of the 1968 Tuskar Rock air disaster has shown that documents from a routine inspection of the aircraft carried out three months before the crash are missing.
The Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said she was "deeply disturbed" by the findings and has established a new inquiry. The findings were published yesterday in an official review of Irish and British files on the tragedy.
The accident killed all 61 people on board the Aer Lingus flight from Cork to London after it plunged 17,000 feet into the sea near Tuskar Rock on March 24th, 1968. Presenting the review yesterday, Ms O'Rourke said it raised "serious matters" which required further investigation.
She expressed particular concern that the 1970 inquiry into the fate of the St Phelim failed to mention the missing paperwork.
A spokesman for Aer Lingus said last night the airline was "absolutely certain" it had done all it could to locate the documents. "We have carried out several exhaustive trawls for every piece of paperwork pertaining to the accident," a spokesman said.
The review said the maintenance records were a cause "for concern" but said there was no evidence these matters had a bearing on the accident's cause.
Ms O'Rourke has invited two international air crash specialists to study the available evidence and expects them to report by November. She made the announcement after presenting the review to the Cabinet yesterday and briefing victims' relatives.
Speculation about the crash has continued before and since the inconclusive first report and intensified with the 30th anniversary of the crash two years ago. The 1970 inquiry and subsequent media reports focused on the possibility that the plane was hit by a British aircraft or missile. However, yesterday's review says there is no change in the UK's position - Britain has always ruled out any such possibility.
The authors conclude that the 1970 inquiry did not give adequate consideration to possible causes other than a mid-air impact.
The review notes that the instance of missing paperwork was "by no means unique" in Aer Lingus during the 1960s when record-keeping was poor. However, it adds that the maintenance history of the St Phelim was extensively researched by the airline after the crash and says it is "difficult if not impossible" to understand why this material was not included in the report on the accident.
The authors also express puzzlement about how officials of the old Department of Transport and Power renewed the St Phelim's certificate of airworthiness in February 1968, just weeks before the crash, based on the plane's maintenance records. The review concludes that officials did not know documentation was missing.
The two investigators appointed to carry out the latest inquiry are Mr Colin Torkington, an Australian who has worked in air crash investigation and safety in his native country and Canada, and Mr Yves le Mercier, a former French naval pilot who has investigated air crashes in Bucharest, Chicago and Paris.