Manx2 has had no contact with family of co-pilot killed in crash

THE family of the co-pilot killed in the Manx2 flight which crashed at Cork airport in February claim they still have had “no contact” from the company which also ignored a request to pay to bring his body home.

Andrew Cantle was one of six people who died on the Belfast to Cork flight which, it transpired, was operated by a Barcelona- based aviation firm Flightline, which in turn subcontracted the Belfast- Cork route to Manx2.

It has also emerged that Flightline is in danger of losing its licence to fly aircraft following inspections by the Spanish Civil Air Authority which discovered what it described as “discrepancies”.

According to a BBC radio documentary, Flightline was hauled in front of the European Commissions’ Safety Committee last month and warned it would lose its operator certificate if it doesn’t come up with “a corrective plan” to address several immediate safety concerns around procedures over pilot selection, and the use of alternative airports to divert to.

In its preliminary investigation into the accident the Irish Aviation Association (IAA) found that inexperienced pilots on board attempted to land the plane in heavy fog at Cork instead of diverting to an alternative airport.

Mr Cantle, 27, had only been flying with Manx2 for a fortnight.

Beth Webster, his partner, is waiting for an apology from the company.

“Manx2 still have not made any contact with my or Andy’s family — no phone call, letters, nothing,” she said.

“It was requested that they pay to bring his body home but they ignored it and didn’t give a response at all.”

Mr Cantle’s father John said: “We have never had contact from them — no condolences, nothing at all... If you are so proud of what you are doing and put it in 10ft letters, I don’t expect you just walk away and say sorry that’s it.”

In the documentary, survivor Mark Dickens described the moment the plane crashed.

“Immediately I thought we were never going to land this safely. I shouted out, ‘We’re going to crash, we’re going to crash’. A few people screamed and then the plane lurched fairly violently to the left, fairly violently to the right and I was looking out the window, at this point we were still descending.

“The wing tip, where I was sitting next to, just hit the runway, we flipped over onto the back and then slid off the runway into this mud and there was screaming and shouting, the sound of glass breaking, all the windows smashed. And then we came to rest.”

Manx2 has consistently refused to comment on the case until the full report is published by the IAA.