The Air Accident Investigation Unit has initiated an inquiry into the cause of a light aircraft crash in Co Galway yesterday which claimed the lives of two Belgian men.
The two men are believed to have died instantly when their single-engine DR250 aircraft crashed during an attempted emergency landing shortly after take-off from Galway airport at Carnmore.
Visibility was poor with heavy rain and wind at the time of the accident, which occurred at about 12.40pm. The aircraft plunged into the ground at Co Galway cricket club grounds at Lydican, Oranmore, having lost radio contact almost immediately after take-off. It was reported that the aircraft lost its wing before it crashed, and this was located several fields away from the cricket pitch.
The two Belgian men, who have not yet been named, are believed to have spent the weekend in Galway. When the aircraft did not report back to the tower at Galway airport, the air traffic controller on duty contacted Shannon airport. About the same time, a member of the public informed Shannon that an aircraft had been seen crashing.
The aircraft broke up on impact, but a full fuel tank survived and did not explode. The crash scene at the cricket pitch is close to a school and within less than 200m of a number of houses.
Paddy McHugh, an eye-witness, was working in a house nearby and said that he heard "the loud noise of a plane and all of a sudden it went dead.
"We ran out to see the plane and people were shouting at us, asking if we knew first aid. But by the time we got there, there was nothing we could do," he said. "It was a shock to see it. It was an awful sight, but it was obvious from the start that there was something wrong as the plane lost a wing three fields away."
Gardaí sealed off the area, and two investigators from the AAIU were travelling to the area from Dublin yesterday evening.
The crash comes just two months after two Galway businessmen were killed in a helicopter accident in the south of the county. The two men, Damien Bergin and Mark Reilly, were returning from the Tall Ships race in Waterford when their aircraft crashed in a wooded area close to Derrybrien in Co Galway.
