Airline involved in Cork plane crash renamed

The airline involved in the Cork Airport plane crash disaster almost two years ago is to be renamed and re-branded after a management buyout.

Manx2.com’s Isle of Man-based management team, led by managing director David Buck, has bought the Manx2.com business and will take over on Jan 1.

The airline will be renamed Citywing and will undergo a complete re-branding. The company said the new logo which will appear on its aircraft is based on the Manx Shearwater bird.

“In recognition of the management buy-out and our plans to further extend the reach of our community-connecting services to other city-to-city routes outside the Isle of Man, we felt it appropriate to realign the company name to Citywing, which is of more direct relevance to our broader activities, including the Cardiff-Anglesey and Gloucester-Jersey routes,” said Mr Buck.

The pilot, co-pilot and four passengers died on Feb 10, 2011, when a flight from Belfast to Cork operated by Flightline BCN on behalf of Manx2 crashed on its third attempt to land at Cork Airport in foggy conditions.

Six more passengers were injured when the plane overturned and burst into flames just off the runway. It was one of the worst disasters at any Irish airport.

Within hours, Noel Hayes, Manx2’s chairman and largest shareholder, had arrived at Cork Airport to meet survivors and field questions from the media.

In a statement, the company said the buy-out had been conducted with Mr Hayes’s support. The new company will remain based in the Isle of Man, will be staffed by Isle of Man employees, and will have island resident owners and directors.

Mr Buck said it will be business as usual from Jan 1 with existing bookings with Manx2. com being “automatically and seamlessly” transferred to Citywing. All flight schedules and timings remain the same.

Launched in 2006, Manx2 is considered a “virtual airline” which means it does not own aircraft but directly sells seats on flights operated on its behalf.

As part of its investigation into the Cork crash, the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) has identified problems with an engine on the Fairchild Metroliner.

In its interim statement, the AAIU said data from the flight recorder, taken 106 hours before the accident, showed a mismatch between the power delivered to the engines on either side of the ill-fated twin turboprop.

The AAIU also identified anomalies in the power being given out by both engines up to eight seconds before the plane hit the ground.