Air Corps crew to get posthumous honours

THE families of four Air Corps men killed in a helicopter crash will today be awarded distinguished service medals, nine years after the crew lost their lives during a rescue mission.

Relatives of the crew of Dauphin 248 will be presented with Distinguished Service Medals (DSMs) following years of lobbying over the worst accident in the Air Corps’ history.

Servicemen, Capt Dave O’Flaherty, Capt Michael Baker, Sgt Paddy Mooney and Cpl Niall Byrne were returning from their maiden rescue mission off the Waterford Coast on the night of July 2, 1999, when their Dauphin helicopter crashed into a sand dune in fog.