Visibility main issue, says expert

DAVID LEARMOUNT, operations editor of Flight Global magazine, said he believed visibility may have been the main issue yesterday, based on initial reports.

He described the Fairchild Metroliner, which began being manufactured in the US in the 1960s, as looking a bit like a hedgehog.

According to the website of Barcelona company Flightline BCN which operated the aircraft for Manx2, the cabin is just over 35 feet long, with a maximum passenger capacity of 19, a cargo door and forward entrance door. It has a maximum cruise speed of 240 knots (444km per hour) and cruising altitude of 6,100 metres.

These turbo-prop twin-engine airplanes were built until the late 1990s.

“They operated mostly in the US on commuter and regional airlines, not so much in Europe, as most airlines over here operate larger aircraft. But 19 passengers was what the average commuter airplane needed to carry in the 1980s,” he said.

“The Metroliner is quite an old-fashioned aircraft by today’s standards, as it’s some years since any were produced. Although there is no suggestion there was anything wrong with the aircraft that crashed at Cork today, Metroliners have been involved in a number of accidents over the years,” he said.

“We know the crew were having a problem with visibility. There was fog, and fog is a problem,” he said.

“They aborted an approach because visibility wasn’t good enough and then tried a third time. If visibility was 400 metres, that’s not good enough [to land in],” he said.

Asked if passengers should be nervous about flying in smaller aircraft following an incident like this, he said travellers should choose an established airline if they want absolute safety.

“These smaller types of aircraft and smaller airlines don’t have the same safety record that other airlines do.”