Relatives of the victims of the 1968 Tuskar air disaster yesterday claimed to have uncovered proof of evidence previously denied that the Aer Lingus Viscount St Phelim was hit by a missile.
According to Mr Michael Burke, of the Tuskar Rock Relatives' Action Group, they are close to finding what caused Flight 712 from Cork to crash.
The suspicion has always been that the plane was downed when it was hit accidentally by a British missile during a training exercise either at sea or in north Wales.
According to Mr Burke, the group has taken a statement from an Irish naval officer confirming that a missile part was recovered from near the crash scene. "This man was an officer on one of the Irish corvettes at the time. They got a call to pick up an object from a trawler", said Mr Burke, who lost his mother and grandmother in the crash.
"He boarded the trawler, as did a Britsh navy officer from his ship, and they met the skipper of the trawler and he handed over the object to the Irish officer", he said.