An inquiry into an Aer Lingus pilot who was stripped of his licence after a crash-landing did not consider documents that may have cleared him of blame, a review of the inquiry has been told.
The review heard yesterday that an investigation of a similar incident with another Aer Lingus aircraft at Liverpool's Speake Airport later that year found water in the fuel had caused the engines to cut out.
Capt T.J. Hanley, who crash-landed the Dakota DC3, St Kieran, on farmland at Spurnell near Birmingham while on a flight from Dublin on New Year's Day 1953, always contended the same problem occurred in his aircraft.
The public inquiry which followed, however, stated pilot error was the cause without considering the Speake report.
It concluded Capt Hanley and his co-pilot, Mr Paddy Whyte, must have mistakenly run both the left and right engines off the right fuel tank and run out of fuel while they had a full left tank and auxiliary tank to draw on.
Witnesses at the opening day of the review rejected the theory as highly unlikely, given Capt Hanley's reputation as a man of vast experience who was ahead of his time in initiating extra safety checks before they were the norm.
Mr Whyte, the only person among the 25 passengers and crew to be injured in the accident, was also a pilot of wide experience who had worked closely with Capt Hanley both in the Air Corps and Aer Lingus.
"They would have had to have broken all their training and all their natural habits to do what the inquiry said," said Mr Brendan Flanagan, another pilot who served with both men.
Mr Whyte, who also gave evidence, said cockpit dials and gauges were displaced on impact and may have given the impression only one tank was in use.
Capt Hanley, who died in 1992 at the age of 85, was confined to flying freight planes after losing his passenger licence and had to move to the United States to work.
He campaigned to clear his name and had his licence restored in 1977 but the government of the day refused a fresh inquiry.
The current review, headed by Mr Patrick Keane SC, was granted by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, following renewed lobbying by the late captain's three daughters with the support of the Irish Airline Pilots' Association.
Aviation expert Mr John Allen told yesterday's hearing that water in fuel tanks, caused by condensation or rain, was a well-documented problem and tanks were fitted with cocks to drain it off.
Mr Allen also referred to witness statements to the 1953 inquiry which described the St Kieran back-firing as it descended.
This suggested fuel was reaching the engines sporadically rather a situation where the tank was empty.
Irish Shell, which fuelled both the St Kieran and the plane involved in the Speake problem, is disputing any suggestion of fault by the company or its products as the reasons for the incidents.