British and Irish air accident investigators and officials from the British Ministry of Defence will meet in Dublin tomorrow to begin re-examining evidence relating to the 1968 Tuskar Rock air crash in which 61 people were killed.
The formal arrangements for the review of existing documents were discussed at a meeting in London yesterday between the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, and Britain's junior transport minister, Ms Glenda Jackson. The review will take place during a series of meetings in Dublin and London and is expected to last three to four months. British and Irish officials will decide tomorrow the number and location of meetings and will report to each minister at intervals during the review.
Speculation about the cause of the crash has increased since the 30th anniversary of the disaster and the publication of a document earlier this month claiming a British missile hit the aircraft. The British Ministry of Defence has described other theories, including the existence of a drone target aircraft and the cremation of victims, as "absolute and complete rubbish".
Ms O'Rourke will meet relatives of the victims later this week to discuss the review. Talking to RTE after the meeting, she said: "It is not a new inquiry, it is a much more focused review of all the available evidence. It is owed to all the relatives to conduct a sharper review of all the evidence." She said she believed the British authorities were co-operating fully with the review and she was keeping an "absolutely open mind" about the cause of the crash. "There is a strong sense of such compassion and emotion by people who don't know what happened . . . we must do everything we can to clear up the questions still shrouding Tuskar Rock." Ms O'Rourke also appealed for anyone with information about the crash to come forward.
A spokeswoman for the British Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions said officials from the British Air Accident and Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the Ministry of Defence would review all the available evidence relating to the "tragedy" of the Tuskar air crash. Ms O'Rourke also discussed with Ms Jackson the provision of disability access on public transport in Britain and Ireland and after the meeting she travelled on a London bus fitted with specially designed access platforms for the disabled. A pilot scheme being launched in Dublin in two months by Dublin Bus will see up to six buses with facilities for the disabled on busy routes and representatives of disabled groups will be invited to take part in the trial and report on its merits.