An awareness campaign to warn pilots about the danger of striking overhead cables is to be carried out by the State’s aviation authority following the deaths of two men in a helicopter crash in Co Kildare.
A final report into the fatal crash near Kilshanchoe on April 1st 2009 was published today by the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) of the Department of Transport.
The helicopter's pilot Colm Clancy (34) from Co Donegal and his student Dermot Sheridan (24) from Co Clare, who was studying for his private pilot's licence, were killed on the training flight after they hit power lines running across a field.
Accident investigators found the helicopter was operating “considerably below” the legal limit of 500 feet when it crashed shortly after 4.30pm that afternoon.
But they said the environment in which the helicopter was flying was such that it would have been very difficult for either pilot to identify the presence of power lines at such a low level without having carried out a previous reconnaissance of the area.
The investigation team was satisfied the helicopter was engaged in a training exercise involving a procedure known as autorotation to a low level when the crash occurred.
It said the crash was not survivable.
Concern was raised that the helicopter was not reported as missing until family members became concerned the following day.
It emerged that the office of the flight training school at Weston aerodrome had closed at 4.30pm on the day of the crash, and because it was believed the helicopter had flown to Cork, no one had noticed when it did not return.
Following the accident, Weston put in place procedures to ensure all aircraft were accounted for, particularly training aircraft. It insisted that pilots departing must enter the details of their intended flight before they are allowed to depart.
The Irish Aviation Authority accepted the investigators’ recommendation that it develop a suitable awareness campaign to inform general aviation pilots of the potential hazards of cable strikes.
It said it would publish information in Flying in Ireland magazine and on its website. In addition, specific wire-strike awareness training material will be produced and distributed as part of the State safety programme.
The AAIU said it was investigating a total of six cable-strike events in general aviation over the past year.
Since 1997, when the last fatal cable strike occurred, there were only two “significant” such strikes before the fatal Kildare crash in April 2009.