Investigator says trainee not at controls when aircraft crashed

THE CHIEF investigator into the Air Corps crash, which claimed the lives of two airmen on a training flight in Connemara in October 2009, has said there is no evidence that a trainee was on the controls in the last seconds of the flight.

An inquest into the deaths of Capt Derek Furniss (32), Rathfarnham, Dublin, and Cadet David Jevens (22), Glynn, Co Wexford, heard the aircraft was on a safe ascent out of difficulty when the pilot in charge experienced a disorientation effect.

This caused the pilot to descend rapidly, but he recovered in the last seconds of the flight and attempted evasive action, Paddy Judge of the Air Accident Investigation Unit told the opening day of the inquest in Galway City Hall yesterday.

Chief flight instructor Capt Furniss and Cadet Jevens died after their aircraft hit the hillside in Crimlin East, near Cornamona on the Galway-Mayo border, on October 12th, 2009.

The investigator’s final report found “disorientation” and loss of “situational awareness” experienced by Capt Furniss led to the fatal crash of the F265 Pilatus PC-9(M) training aircraft as it flew through a narrow and steep-sided valley. Questioned by Ciarán Craven, for the Furniss family, Mr Judge agreed the condition, known as somatogravic illusion, could not be proven as the cause.

“We’ve calculated that it was probable,” he said.

Contributory factors to the phenomenon, including restricted visibility, high speed and a rolling pull and “pitch up” or ascent, were features of this particular flight, he said.

Mr Judge told coroner Dr Ciarán McLoughlin that the condition – where the pilot’s senses give the impression that the aircraft is flying a different manoeuvre from that shown on the instruments – was known about since before the second World War. In this case it had occurred in the last eight seconds, once the “pitch” or ascent was made out of a narrow valley through which the aircraft had been travelling at 1,350 feet over ground and 220 knots (250 mph).

“If he [the pilot] hadn’t had any illusion, he’d have flown up to minimum safety altitude,” Mr Judge said.

During further questioning by Mr Craven, Mr Judge said there was no evidence Cadet Jevens in the front cockpit took control in the last stages of the flight.

The flight data recorder had earlier confirmed that Capt Furniss took over after weather conditions forced the aircraft to deviate from its planned training flight from Baldonnel via Maam to Galway airport.

Mr Craven maintained that Capt Furniss’s considerable experience would have been such that it would have been “utterly counter-intuitive” for him to have gone into a dive, even if he had experienced the disorientation.

Mr Judge said there was no evidence on the recorder that Cadet Jevens had resumed control and it would not be normal practice in the military for a trainee to intervene when not instructed to do so.

“With all due respect, I’m a pilot and you’re not . . . and that’s normal procedure,” Mr Judge said, during continued questioning by Mr Craven.

Mr Judge told Donal Jevens, father of the late cadet, that he did not believe the pilots could have seen an exit route from the valley at the height they were flying.

While the navigational charts in the aircraft were suitable for the planned exercise, they were not suitable for a deviation from the route, he acknowledged.

The inquest continues today.

‘Three short bangs like gunshots’ heard

WITNESSES:WITNESSES LIVING in the Crimlin valley area who were called before yesterday's inquest described hearing an aircraft with engine difficulties shortly before the crash.

Farmer Joe Walsh said that he was at his kitchen sink in Crimlin East washing his hands at 5.50pm on October 12th, his wife Margaret beside him, when he heard a loud nose and thought at first it was a helicopter.

He went to the back of the house and saw the aircraft flying to the front at about 200ft with a “good tilt and with the right wing down”.

He said he remembered telling his wife that it sounded “rough, as if the engine wasn’t right”. There were then “three quick short bangs like gunshots” and one “thud”, as if the aircraft had hit the ground.

“No more was heard then, only pure silence,” said Mr Walsh.

Shortly afterwards his neighbour John Kenny arrived and asked “ ‘is there a happening?’, and I said ‘there is’,” recalled Mr Walsh.

The two men went up the hillside on Mr Walsh’s quad bike but could not see anything at first. However, they could smell fuel and about 5ft from the top of the hilltop they could see “the imprint, where the plane hit”, he said. “It must have somersaulted over and gone into pieces.”

Coroner Dr Ciarán McLoughlin questioned Mr Walsh about the weather conditions,. Mr Walsh confirmed that even if one knew the area well, it was possible to get lost in fog.

Mr Kenny, who was dipping sheep, said that the aircraft’s engine sounded “like an old car that was backfiring”.

“It was flying low, so low that I could see the pilot.

“It turned upside down and it was like they were doing manoeuvres or something and the plane flew into fog then,” he added.