Fatal air crash was caused by inadequate fuel in tank

A training aircraft that crashed killing its two occupants was running dangerously low on fuel — leading investigators to recommend that all registered flight training schools be required to do additional on-board fuel safety checks before departure.

The final report into the crash that claimed the lives of flying instructor Niall Doherty, 31, from Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and trainee pilot Damien Deegan, 31, from Crinkle, Co Offaly, found the probable cause was power loss due to fuel starvation which resulted in the aircraft stalling and the pilot losing control.

Two other student pilots who had flown separately in the same Cessna aircraft in the hours before the crash, reported that there was 60 litres of fuel on board prior to the aircraft commencing the first of three afternoon training flights.