AFP/Cork

 

 

Fire personnel stand beside the aircraft which crashed at the Cork airport

A commuter plane crashed and burst into flames, killing six people and injuring another six yesterday, as it tried to land in heavy fog at Cork airport in Ireland, officials said.

The turboprop aircraft travelling from Belfast in Northern Ireland with 12 people on board flipped onto its roof as it made its third attempt to touch down at the airport in southern Ireland.

“I can confirm that we have six fatalities and six people are in hospital,” Tom O’Sullivan, a spokesman for Cork County Council, said. Irish police gave the same toll.

After the crash, the white and blue aircraft operated by Manx2 airlines was left lying upside down, with its front end almost completely destroyed, photographs taken by witnesses showed.

Dozens of rescue workers and emergency vehicles surrounded the plane.

The Irish Aviation Authority said the 19-seat Fairchild Metroliner SW4 aircraft was carrying 10 passengers and two crew when it crashed.

Visibility was so bad that the control tower was unable to see the aircraft when it crashed, said the authority’s chief executive, Eamonn Brennan.

He said the “wind was very light but the visibility was very poor”.

The pilots had tried to land on two different runways without success but the plane crashed next to a taxiway while making a third attempt, the aviation authority said in a statement.

“There is a fire, and debris has been scattered onto the runway and over a wide area,” the statement said.

O’Sullivan, from the county council, later said the fire had been extinguished and the area had been declared a crime scene while the crash was investigated.

Cork airport said it was closed until further notice.

Incoming flights operated by British Airways, Aer Lingus and Ryanair were diverted to Shannon airport.

The Roman Catholic Bishop of Cork, John Buckley, was in the area at the time and went directly to the airport to hold prayers with relatives who were waiting in the arrivals hall of the airport.

“The suddenness and scale of this loss of life is shocking,” his office said in a statement.

Irish Transport Minister Pat Carey conveyed the sympathy of the government to the families of the victims and said he had already spoken to the head of the air accident investigations unit, who were on their way to Cork.

Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson said he was shocked by the crash. Some of the victims were believed to be from the British province.

“This is a terrible tragedy and my thoughts are with the families of the bereaved,” he said.

Aviation experts said the flight crew may have made a mistake by persisting in attempts to land in fog. The experts said it was most unusual for pilots to make more than two attempts and that they might have been better off diverting to Dublin where the weather was better.

There were also questions over why the flight was allowed to leave Belfast City Airport when there was also heavy fog there.

Manx2 was founded in 2006 and operates flights linking Ireland, Britain and the Isle of Man. It began the twice-daily flights from Belfast to Cork in September.