Multiple factors highlighted in air crash report

Low cloud, poor visibility and mountain wave activity are factors that may have contributed to a fatal air crash in which two men and two dogs lost their lives last May.

A preliminary report into the accident in which 69-year-old Bryan Keane and his 58-year-old friend Paul Smith died on May 24, draws attention to a number of possible negative influences on the day, but draws no definitive conclusion.

The men, who departed Ballyboy Airfield, Co Meath, in a Cessna aircraft at approximately 9am for the purpose of attending a fly-in at a private airfield near Taghmon, Co Wexford, never reached their destination, instead crashing into the Blackstairs Mountains in Co Carlow shortly before 2.40pm.