President to attend funerals of pilots

PRESIDENT MARY McAleese will attend the funerals of both Air Corps pilots who died when their plane crashed in Connemara earlier this week.

Minister for Defence Willie O’Dea will also attend both services, along with Defence Forces chief of staff Lieut Gen Dermot Earley and GOC Air Corps Brig Gen Ralph James.

Mrs McAleese was due to return from a State visit to Luxembourg last night, and will attend the requiem Mass today for Cadet David Jevens (22) at St Alphonsus Church, Barntown, Co Wexford.

Both Cadet Jevens, from Co Wexford, and Capt Derek Furniss (32), from south Dublin, will be buried with full military honours.

The memorial service for Capt Furniss takes place tomorrow at St John the Evangelist Church, Ballinteer Road, Dublin, with burial afterwards at Kilmashogue Cemetery.

The plane was on a low-flying visual navigation training exercise from Casement Aerodrome to Maam, Co Galway, when it was reported missing.

Capt Furniss is survived by his parents, Paula and Owen Furniss, two sisters, Jane and Susan, and partner Lesley Byrne. Cadet Jevens is survived by his parents, Liz and Donal Jevens, siblings Sarah and Christopher and girlfriend Niamh.

Mr O’Dea said in the Dáil yesterday he had been shocked and saddened to learn of the deaths of the two pilots.

The Air Corps pilot training school at Baldonnel has closed this week as a mark of respect. Internal checks have been carried out on all seven remaining PC-9 aircraft, but there are no plans to ground the fleet pending the outcome of the official inquiry.