Irish tourist alive after plane crash kills pilot
Collette Kenny, 28, was thrown from the light aircraft after it struck a mobile phone tower designed to look like a tree in the scenic Lake Mathews area of southern California on Sunday.
She managed to call for help herself but local people who went to her aid were prevented from reaching her for a time because the tower was surrounded by high metal security railings.
The mangled wreckage of the single-engine plane was still hanging from the fake tree when emergency crews arrived on the scene.
Local media reported the plane was homemade and aircraft authorities described it as “experimental” but it is thought it may have been one of the many in regular use in the area bringing tourists on scenic flights around the surrounding canyon and nearby mountains.
Ms Kenny, from Carrigallen, Co Leitrim, was on holiday and had been visiting an aunt in the US. An accountant with Grant Farrell Sparks in Longford, she got engaged this year and her fiancé and family at home were shocked when they were told of the accident.
The cause of the crash is under investigation but there was no immediately obvious explanation. It happened just after midday in perfect weather conditions and local people said they neither saw nor heard signs of the plane being in distress before the impact.
Ms Kenny’s escape was all the more remarkable as the plane narrowly missed electricity lines — and power supplies had to be disconnected before operations to recover the pilot’s body could begin and aircraft accident investigators admitted.
The Department of Foreign Affairs said that no request had been made to provide consular assistance but said it had staff on standby to help if needed.
The department also said it stood ready to offer assistance, if requested, to relatives of an Irishman reported to have died in Mexico after a violent assault.
According to Mexican media, the 26-year-old, named by authorities locally as George Michael Van Day and originally believed to have been English, died in the General Hospital of Cuidad Juarez, after spending 10 days in a coma.
Reports said he had been found with serious head injuries by the Paso del Norte bridge which acts as a border crossing between Mexico and the US.
Meanwhile, preparations are being made for the return to Ireland of the remains of Eamonn Morgan from Co Down who died with his English girlfriend, Charlotte Sant, when their dune buggy overturned in Qatar at the weekend.
