Many aviation fans expected at flying boat splash

HUNDREDS of visitors are expected at Foynes port this afternoon to witness a flying boat splash land after a flight from Newfoundland, Canada.

The Catalina flying boat will have flown the same air corridor which seaplanes flew from 1935 to 1945 when Foynes was an international aviation hub for flying boats travelling between the UK and the US.

Father and son, Patrick and Ian White, run an aviation company in Newfoundland.

Actress Maureen O’Hara, who starred in The Quiet Man with John Wayne, will be guest of honour at today’s reception. Her late husband, Charlie Blair, piloted the last flying boat out of Foynes in 1945.

He made a return flight to Foynes in the late 1970s accompanied by Ms O’Hara. After a reception they flew on to West Cork where the couple had a holiday home.

Captain Blair died in an air accident in the Pacific.

The Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, Seamus Brennan, is also expected to attend the welcome party for the flight crew.

The seaplane will remain in Foynes until July 17 and will do a number of flights over the West coast.

Margaret O’Shaughnessy, director of Foynes Flying Boat Museum said: “It will be a very special occasion to have a flying boat come back into Foynes and will be the highlight of a weekend of festivities which has attracted aviation enthusiasts from all over the world.”

A group from Foynes will travel to Newfoundland later this summer where Foynes is twinned with the town of Botwood.