A preliminary air accident investigation report into the death of two people, including a seven-year-old boy, in an aircraft crash in Co Offaly last month has found no evidence of engine failure.
Niall Bowditch (47) and the boy, Kasper Kacprzak, were killed in the crash on May 13th just minutes after the boy’s father had jumped from the aircraft, along with 15 others.
The preliminary Accident Investigation Unit Ireland report uncovered CCTV footage of the aircraft moments before the crash in bogland in the Clonbullogue area of Offaly.
The aircraft had been fitted with an ADAS unit which records engine and airframe data. Analysis is ongoing, the reports says, but it appears the engine was still running up until the end.
The aircraft, a Cessna 208B (Grand Caravan) high wing, which was a 12.7m, all-metal aircraft, was manufactured in 2005 and had an up-to-date certificate of airworthiness.
Nose-down attitude
CCTV footage from a nearby windfarm and the training base at Mount Lucas appears to “briefly show the aircraft, in flight, in the distance, before it assumed a steep, nose-down attitude and descended below a line of trees”.
Several witnesses described hearing the aircraft pass overhead before seeing it flying “sideways” and “low down”. Several of the parachutists have provided video recordings of their jumps.
One shows the aircraft for approximately one second, as it descended below a line of trees. Investigators hope to see if some of the video images can be enhanced.
One witness said he saw the plane “on its left side” while a walker “ looked up and saw the aircraft coming straight down, nose first, before it disappeared below a line of trees, located to his northwest”.
Another witness on the ground heard the aircraft and saw it “coming straight down, nose first, before it disappeared below a line of trees”. Seconds later, there was a loud “thump”.
The preliminary report does not contain analysis or conclusions and is “ subject to change and may contain errors; any errors in this report will be corrected in the final report”, said investigators.