Maria O'Flaherty, the widow of one of the four Air Corps crew killed in last year's Dauphin helicopter crash, has said the four men were "badly let down by their employers".
The Department of Defence has a "lot to answer for" and the official response to the Government inquiry on the crash has been "completely inadequate", Ms O'Flaherty (32) has told The Irish Times.
The recent Dail statement by the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, on the findings of the Air Accident Investigation Unit was "very disappointing", she says.
And although the Minister has committed himself to purchasing medium-range helicopters for the Air Corps, it will take three years after tendering, she points out. "They should be leasing medium-range craft in the interim, as was done before."
Maria was almost two years married to Capt Dave O'Flaherty when the accident occurred on July 2nd, 1999, at Tramore, Co Waterford. Then living and working in Lucan, Co Dublin, she has moved with the couple's nine-month-old daughter, Davina, back to her native Templemore in north Tipperary. In an interview with this newspaper, Maria O'Flaherty criticised the Department of the Marine and Natural Resources, and the role of its Marine Rescue Co-ordination Centre (MRCC) on the night of the accident.
As the official report says in its conclusion, there was "a degree of confusion at MRCC regarding certain aviation-related aspects of the search for the missing helicopter". These were "the endurance of the helicopter and the precise location of Waterford airport".
Ms O'Flaherty believes the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) report, published in September, was comprehensive and thorough. Along with the relatives of Capt O'Flaherty's crew - Capt Michael Baker (28), Sgt Paddy Mooney (34) and Cpl Niall Byrne (24) - she was given a copy of the draft report last May.
The report, published on September 28th last, identified two active causes, six contributory causes and nine systemic causes for the crash, made 25 recommendations, and highlighted serious deficiencies in support for the four crew from a number of quarters, including Air Corps senior management, the Department of Defence and the Department of Marine.
While the main cause is identified as collision with a sand dune after an unsuccessful approach on Tramore beach at night in extremely poor visibility, the report was unable to determine the reason for prior descent of the aircraft. However, it says the weather in Tramore Bay was so bad a successful landing would have been "virtually impossible".
Ms O'Flaherty says one of the most shocking aspects was the revelation that her husband and crew were not informed until July 1st - the day the 24-hour base was officially initiated - that no after-hours air traffic control was being provided at Waterford airport for search and rescue missions.
The Air Corps had requested it, through the Department of Defence, but this was not established due to the absence of a financial agreement on call-out allowances between airport management and staff. On learning of this on the day in question, the detachment commander, Capt O'Flaherty, instructed a member of his technical support team, an aircraft maintenance technician, to go to the control tower and obtain a briefing on the operation of the communications and airfield lighting.
"Dave was in the military, so his attitude would be to make the best use of limited or inadequate resources," Maria says. "He was not working for a commercial airline where he would have had a choice."
As the report states, Air Corps senior management told the investigation team they were "unaware" that the after-hours air traffic control cover issue had not been resolved. Department of Defence officials who were dealing directly with Waterford deployment stated that "they saw it as a matter of fact that afterhours local air traffic control services would be provided".
"This sort of answer is just not good enough," Maria O'Flaherty says. "It is evident that facilities were not adequate at Waterford, and someone in the Department of Defence wasn't doing his or her job. If there had been an air traffic controller, he or she would have realised that conditions had changed, and could have rung around to check airports that were open and diverted them while they still had fuel. They wouldn't have been forced to circle in thick fog, and then try and land at Tramore."
When the missing pleasure craft which prompted the helicopter's mission was located by the Helvick inshore lifeboat, the lifeboat requested navigational assistance from the Dauphin as it was having difficulty with its Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) navigational system.
Twenty minutes after responding to the lifeboat's request, at 22.42, the Dauphin called Waterford tower for an update on the weather and was informed that it was "staying the same". The report says this probably led the crew to believe conditions at the airport were similar to when they had taken off.
At 22.51, Waterford called the helicopter to advise them the weather was "deteriorating slightly here".
"The lads were badly let down by their employers," Maria O'Flaherty says. "It was up to them to ensure their safety, and it was up to the Minister for Defence to know what was going on in his own Department."
Long before the fatal crash, the unsuitability of the Dauphin short-range aircraft for search and rescue work off the Atlantic seaboard had been highlighted - as far back as 1991. The Air Corps base at Finner, Co Donegal, is regarded as far more hazardous in terms of weather conditions, and her husband had undertaken a number of missions from there. "Dave had almost 3,000 hours of flying and he was extremely experienced. Waterford should have been far less dangerous."
Ms O'Flaherty has not joined Mr Tony Baker, father of Capt Michael Baker, in calling for the resignation of the General Officer Commanding (GOC) Air Corps, Brig Gen Patrick Cranfield. However, she does take issue with the GOC's assertion on RTE television, on the day the report was published, that he still didn't know why no air traffic control had been provided at Waterford.
"The GOC has had his draft copy of the report since last May, and had plenty of time to find out from then."
The GOC is due to retire, and Ms O'Flaherty said she would like to see him implement the recommendations in the report before he steps down. The lack of a flight safety officer was particularly distressing, she said - a position which has now been sanctioned. It had been recommended in the February 1998 Price Waterhouse review of the Naval Service and Air Corps.
Ms O'Flaherty last spoke to her husband by phone at around 7 p.m. on the day of the accident. She phoned her husband's mobile at around 10.40 p.m. before she went to bed and the call was diverted.
"Normally, when he was in Finner, I'd leave a message asking him to phone me back. But I didn't this time because I just thought Waterford was so safe."
At about 3 a.m. the next morning, July 2nd, two of her husband's colleagues called to the couple's house in Lucan, Co Dublin, to tell her the helicopter was missing. At around 6.30 a.m., a telephone call came to confirm that her husband and his three colleagues were dead.
The inquest into the deaths of the four airmen is due to resume in Waterford later this month. A dedication ceremony in tribute to them is due to be held by the Air Corps helicopter wing at Finner Camp, Co Donegal, next weekend.