An inquiry into the crash of an Aer Lingus aircraft in 1953, which led to a lifetime flying ban against a now deceased pilot, is to be reviewed.
The decision, revealed yesterday by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, follows nearly 30 years of campaigning by the family of the pilot, the late Capt T. J. Hanley, whose DC 3 Dakota St Kieran crashed in a field near Birmingham on January 1st, 1953. None of the 22 passengers was seriously injured.
An 11-day public inquiry ruled that the engines had been starved of fuel because the pilot had mistakenly connected both port and starboard engines to the one fuel tank.
Banned from flying passengers for life, Capt Hanley emigrated. He worked as a flight dispatcher at Honolulu International Airport in Hawaii until his retirement 20 years later.
The Minister said her officials last week met the dead pilot's daughters, Mrs Nuala Hanley-Pearse, who now lives in Florida; Ms Patricia Hanley, Carrowcrinn, Ballisodare, Co Sligo, and Ms Aoife Hanley.
The review will question whether it was reasonable for the inquiry to conclude "as a matter of probability" that the accident was caused by mismanagement of the fuel system. Beginning next month and headed by a senior counsel, it will investigate if there is evidence that was not available to the inquiry "which might have led it to a different conclusion".
However, the final terms of reference will not be agreed until the chosen senior counsel offers a legal opinion. A Fine Gael TD, Mr Jim Higgins, asked if witnesses would be heard. A number said at the time that they saw large amounts of fuel spewing from the starboard side of the aircraft.
In the Dail, the Minister told the Fine Gael TD: "We do not know if injustices were committed but we will never get the correct answers because as time goes by it is difficult to reconstruct events."
The Minister for Transport, Mr Padraig Faulkner, restored Capt Hanley's flying licence "unconditionally" in August 1977, though the verdict of the 1953 inquiry still stands.
