AN AIR CORPS instructor became disorientated after a series of rapid turns in deteriorating weather during a training exercise in Connemara, an investigation has found.
Capt Derek Furniss (32), from Rathfarnham, Dublin, and Cadet David Jevens (22), from Glynn, Co Wexford, died after their aircraft hit the hillside in Crimlin East, near Cornamona on the Galway-Mayo border, on October 12th, 2009.
A final report by an Air Accident Investigation Unit published yesterday found “disorientation” and loss of “situational awareness” led to the fatal crash of the F265 Pilatus PC-9(M) training aircraft as it flew through a narrow and steep-sided valley.
Changeable weather conditions, high speed in reduced visibility and continued flight in such conditions towards high terrain are identified as contributory factors.
The report’s authors make seven safety recommendations relating to Air Corps procedures and training. They found “self-authorisation” by the instructor was the “norm” in the Air Corps flight training school at the time, which “reduced supervisory oversight” and was “not in accordance with good safety practice”.
At the time, instructor Capt Furniss was the most senior flight training school officer flying the Pilatus PC-9M. He had served for 10 years in the school and was due to leave for overseas service in December 2009.
He was a respected and skilled aircraft handler, an aerobatic display pilot, and was “highly rated”, the report says. He had been grounded previously for a low-level pass along a runway at Baldonnel due to a lapse in communication between the flight training school and Air Corps headquarters.
The report says he would “not have conducted this at his base in full view of senior officers” if he had not understood that he had been granted permission.
As a cadet he wrote a paper covering spatial disorientation, leading to a phenomenon known as “false climb” recorded in other aircraft incidents. In such a situation, a pilot’s senses give the impression the aircraft is flying a different manoeuvre from that shown on the instruments.
The Air Corps had scheduled a training module on “situational awareness” in 2010 following an investigation of an “instrument meteorological conditions” occurrence in 2007.
Cadet Jevens was considered to be one of the “better students” in his class, the report notes.
A transcript from the aircraft’s cockpit voice recorder in the last five minutes of the flight identifies Cadet Jevens as expressing concerns about entering the valley. His instructor responded, “OK hang on, let’s continue in and let’s look at our options when we get in a bit further, alright.”
Capt Furniss took control of the flight but was recorded as saying, “Bad decision now,” six seconds later. Warnings relating to the aircraft’s height and excessive G-forces were recorded immediately before the recording ended, seconds after 4.57pm.
The flight was one of three that left Air Corps headquarters at Casement aerodrome, Baldonnel, west Dublin, on the evening of October 12th, 2009, on a “visual flight rules cross-country navigation training exercise”. Galway airport was the intended destination.
The aircraft flew northwest initially, and then southwest towards Maam in Connemara, but weather was already breaking as it approached Lough Mask.
The report was originally due to be published in November, but was delayed after “an interested party” served a notice of re-examination on Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar, who is responsible for the Air Accident Investigation Unit.
