Crash flight pilots 'fully qualified': Manx2 boss

Full services resumed at Cork Airport today after the plane crash that killed six people, as the chairman of Manx2 airline insisted both pilots were fully qualified.

It has also emerged that the Manx2 commuter plane which crashed at Cork Airport on Thursday morning had a full maintenance check in Spain last week.

The runway at Cork had been closed for around 36 hours as air accident investigators examined the scene and removed the wreckage of the Manx2 commuter aircraft which flipped over and caught fire on its third attempt to land in thick fog on Thursday morning.

With the airport having opened again last night, an Aer Lingus flight to Amsterdam took off shortly after 6am today with the day’s first arrival – a Ryanair service from Liverpool – touching down at around 7.30am.

It has emerged that the ill fated 19-year-old Fairchild Metroliner aircraft, which had been en route from Belfast City Airport, had been put through a full maintenance check in Spain last week.

While Manx2 chairman Noel Hayes said he was absolutely satisfied the flight crew – co-pilot Andrew Cantle from York and Spanish pilot Jordi Gola Lopez, who both died – were fully qualified.

Their full training records and qualifications have been passed to inspectors at Ireland’s Air Accident Investigations Unit.

“The last 24 hours have been a very long and dark 24 hours for me but I know they were probably a longer and darker 24 hours for the families of the bereaved and my heart goes out to them,” Mr Hayes said last night.

Mr Hayes declined to comment on whether the plane was properly equipped to land in dense fog.

Six people survived the crash.

The six dead included a relative of President Mary McAleese, whose family described him as a true gentleman.

Brendan McAleese, 39, a businessman in Co Tyrone, was a cousin of the President's husband Martin.

Co-pilot Mr Cantle, 27, and originally from Sunderland but living in York in England, had only been flying with Manx2 for a fortnight.

Another British citizen, Richard Noble, originally from Derbyshire but living in the North, also died.

The 49-year-old was married with a daughter and was the managing director of the Irish division of print business the Danwood Group. He had been in the North for several years and lived in Belfast.

Another of those killed in the crash was Pat Cullinan, originally from Omagh, Co Tyrone, a partner in leading accountancy firm KPMG in Belfast. Among the other victims was Captain Michael Evans, deputy harbour master in Belfast.

Two survivors who were discharged from hospital said they owe their lives to the swift response of emergency crews.

Donal Walsh from Waterford and Laurence Wilson from Larne said their hearts went out to the loved ones of the six dead.

The other survivors of the crash were named as Brendan Mallon, from Bangor, Barbara Elliot, from Belfast, Peter Cowley from Glanmire, Co Cork, and Mark Dickens from Watford but a Northern Ireland resident.

Last night they remained in a serious condition with two in intensive care.

The cockpit voice recorder, which has tapes of the pilot’s and co-pilot’s conversations with air traffic control, will be sent to Farnborough, Hampshire, for specialist downloading.

The flight data recorder, the black box, with all the data on speed, engine information, flight heights and approaches, is being sent to the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) lab in Dublin. Both recorders were intact.

At least 16 crash investigators from Ireland, the UK, the US and Spain attended the scene.

Jurgen Whyte, AAIU chief inspector, said: “It’s like a big jigsaw and we are looking at all of the information from air traffic control, recorders, radar and we are building a picture from that.”

A preliminary report with the basic facts will be complete inside a month but Mr Whyte would not disclose if investigators had established exactly where the plane touched down.