Judge rejects €30k settlement offer for girl who developed stress disorder after seeing helicopter crash

A judge today rejected a €30,000 settlement offer for a schoolgirl who developed a serious stress disorder after having seen a helicopter explode in flames in the centre of the seaside village of Bettystown, Co Meath, 12 years ago.

Barrister Jennifer O’Connell told Judge John O’Connor in the Circuit Civil Court that six-year-old Megan Whelan and her mother, Ms Angela Whelan, were lucky to have escaped death when the helicopter crash-landed within yards of them in the car park of the Neptune Hotel, Bettystown, on 18 September, 2008.