Helicopter decision has let my son down, says father

TONY BAKER will never forget the night he learned his son had been killed in a helicopter crash.

His son Capt Mick Baker, 28, was one of four members of the Air Corps who lost their lives when their Dauphin helicopter crashed near Tramore, Co Waterford.

“I will never forget the shock and the pain of that day. I was staying in Dublin in my other son’s house when I was woken up around 4.30am,” he said. “There were people from the Air Corps downstairs and they said the helicopter was missing from the radar. I knew immediately what was wrong.”

Mr Baker believes Defence Minister Michael Smith has let his son and the other Air Corps members down after last week’s decision to cancel an order for five new Sikorsky helicopters.

“It’s crazy that the minister and his senior advisers have taken this decision. These helicopters are needed and everyone in the Air Corps knows that.”

The helicopters currently working out of Dublin, Shannon and Waterford are contracted by the Irish Coast Guard at an annual cost of 17m. In emergency situations the new defence helicopters could have provided backup to the present fleet of rescue aircraft.

“If the Air Corps was looked after properly there would be no need to spend as much on hiring equipment. The manpower is there but the political will is not,” Mr Baker said.

The helicopter order was shelved last week as part of a 40m cut in spending in the Department of Defence.

Capt Baker, Capt Dave O’Flaherty, 30, Sgt Pat Mooney, 34, and Cpl Niall Byrne, 24, all died in the accident on July 2, 1999. The helicopter was returning from a successful rescue mission off Helvick Head when it hit a sand dune in thick fog. The unsuitability of the crew’s Dauphin helicopter for certain types of rescue work was identified in the crash investigation.

“Myself and my wife Mary have always hoped they would get the best aircraft after what happened to Mick and the other lads,” Mr Baker said. “We have spent the last three years trying to recover and then you hear something like this. If we want the Air Corps to carry out search and rescue then they will have to get proper equipment.”

For the last three years Mr Baker has been studying law while his wife is doing an Open University course.

“You have to get on with your life and try to think about other things. But when you come up against Government decisions like this, it just brings it all back,” he said.