Survivor asked four times to move seats

ONE of the passengers to walk away from Thursday’s horror plane crash with only minor injuries had repeatedly asked for his flight seat to be moved to where almost all the fatalities occurred.

Dónal Walsh, 22, from St John’s Hill in Waterford city, is understood to have asked the flight crew up to four times if he could switch seats from the back to the front of the plane because the lack of space made him claustrophobic.

Crew members are believed to have brought refreshments to the young man — who also walked away from a road accident with his father in May — and asked him to remain in his original seat. Due to the fact that no one sitting at the back of the plane died, that decision may have been vital to his miraculous survival.

Mr Walsh, an award-winning University College Cork (UCC) history graduate, was released from Cork University Hospital (CUH) yesterday alongside Laurence Wilson from Larne in Co Antrim.

Both have declined to personally speak to the media until the six people who lost their lives in the crash are buried.

It is understood Mr Walsh had to break a plane window to free himself from the wreckage, from which it has been confirmed he walked unassisted.

Dónal’s mother Anne and brother Padhraic travelled to Cork to be at his side and are believed to have returned to see his father John at the family home in Waterford city yesterday.

The 22-year-old graduated from UCC last year, when he received the Mansion House Fund Scholarship in Irish history.

He was returning from Belfast on Thursday morning after a three-day training course with christian unions group, IFES Ireland. The young man is understood to be working for the organisation as an intern at its UCC and Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) branches. In a statement, the organisation’s director Adam Jones said Dónal’s survival was miraculous.

However, he added that the group’s “thoughts and prayers remain with the families of those who lost their lives, the others injured and those dealing with the aftermath of the crash”.

Dónal is from a well-known Fine Gael family and along with his brother Padhraic, regularly helps his father John analyse votes at election counts.

John told the Irish Examiner on Thursday evening that his son was fine and “just covered in muck” after his lucky escape. “You look at the scene and you don’t know how anyone could have survived,” he said.