Mystery of Aer Lingus Flight 712        

British Missile Strike & Commercial Cover-up in 1968?

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David O’Beirne was a year and 10 months old when his father Barney, the Viscount's pilot, was killed. In the intervening years he has not given up trying to find answers to questions that have tormented the bereaved families for three decades.  Mr O'Beirne has "probed and prodded", asking questions of experienced pilots and air traffic controllers. He has pored over the files and the findings of the inconclusive report on the tragedy.  In 1998, he was finally granted the right to listen to the recording of the voice contact between his father and London Air Traffic controllers who were in contact with the aircraft before it fell out of the sky on March 24th, 1968. He can listen - but he cannot make a copy of the voice interaction or have it analysed. The Department of Public Enterprise, where a copy of the tape is kept, says it has already been examined by experts in the UK and nothing new has been found.

The sadness of what happened is still vivid and though people have got on with their lives it hasn't gone away.  Talking to those left behind, it's obvious that in many cases the wounds are still open because there are no answers. The pilot's wife, Bega O'Beirne, is now in her 60s. "I have nothing to say - all I want is that for the sake of everyone the book should be closed," she says. And how might that book might be closed? "Proof - if we had proof about what actually happened. But God is good and the proof will come out at some stage."

David O'Beirne, who once told his mother that he did not know what it was like to be without a father because there was nothing with which to compare it, understands why the bereaved are so sensitive - why the tragedy is still so real for them.

There were so few bodies recovered, he says, that the process of bereavement was never completed. "For many people this has not gone away. It is still here and present." Over the years Mr O'Beirne, who is an amateur pilot, has received calls from people saying they also had relatives on board the St. Phelim " They wouldn't give their names - they just wanted to talk."

How had it affected his own life? "It's not that we didn't talk about it at home - my mother never held back about the subject - but she was and is a very strong person. Under difficult circumstances she tried to get on with life and go forward....Of course there were sad times, like when my sister, Sally, got married. She was about 11 when the tragedy occurred. For that reason she had the tougher time of it because she remembered everything."

Jerome McCormick of Cobh, Co. Cork lost his brother Neil on Flight 712. An international consultant and athlete, his body was never found. ‘That adds an extra dimension to the tragedy. There is no grave to grieve over. I am desperate for information about this. I want Tony Blair if he can, to confirm to me that those bodies stayed at the bottom of the sea. I want to be reassured that they were not lifted up and spirited away.’

"It was a most traumatic time. I always thought that he would be found - that he would have been able to swim somewhere and be rescued. I had visions of him appearing again at some stage. I suppose that as a child that's how you get through these things."  "It is obvious that this is not going to go away. There is still interest out there - each year, there is going to be an anniversary - even if this year's anniversary is a special one...The sooner it is dealt with, the better. The whole tragedy was made even more traumatic by the fact that there was no grave to go to. Our father's body was never recovered. There was no place to visit, no place at which to pray and bring flowers."

Frank Miller, Irish Times Journalist remembers the Gallivans '..my two first cousins and an aunt by marriage visiting our home in Cork the day before the crash. And then, after it, my mother flying to Luton to look after two other first cousins whose world had caved in when they heard their mother and two sisters had died somewhere out in the Irish Sea' .

Celine O’Donoghue was a 14 year old schoolgirl as she waved goodbye to her aunt, Eileen Gallivan and cousins Marian (16) and Paula (2) as they boarded Flight EI-712 at Cork airport that sunny March morning. Less than an hour later, all three were dead. ‘The Irish authorities never told us what happened to the victims or how the disaster happened. Because of this I can never forget…. I can remember clearly my aunt telling my cousin Marian to run onto the plane and get a seat at the back because she wanted to give Paula a bottle on the way over….in my mind I can still see Marian running across the tarmac and going up the steps at the rear of the Viscount. I can still remember the plane going down the runway and taking off into a clear blue sky. It all seemed perfect.’

Jerry O'Calaghan from Cork, lost his mother and sister in the 'St.Phelim'.

Michael Burke who lost his mother and grandmother in the tragedy: "I believe the plane was hit by a missile or another plane and I can't see the British Ministry of Defence ever releasing any document which will tell us that,"

John Coughlan's twenty one year old sister Mary, was an air hostess on the ill fated Flight 712 from Cork to London. Mary, who had accepted her wings just a month before the air disaster, was the only daughter of Billy and Margaret Coughlan of Ballykisteen. Both her parents, who had to endure the heartbreak of never finding their daughter, died without ever knowing how the disaster happened. The mystery surrounding the tragedy is something that has greatly troubled John Coughlan from the Sunday he was out shooting rabbits thirty one years ago. A neighbour ran through the fields looking for him to tell him that an Aer Lingus plane had gone down and his sister could be on the flight.

“I remember that day as if it was last Sunday. I was in a total state of shock. It’s always there in your mind. It does not go away. Because Mary was one of the forty seven people on the plane that were never found, her mother always expected her to walk in the front door. People talk about the Tuskar disaster at times like the 30th anniversary last year and now because of the new developments but for us it’s there every day”, he added.

“Why has it taken thirty one years for this development. Mary died thirty one years ago and none of the family have any explanation for it. In air disasters or recent years people have an explanation almost instantly. Who was responsible for it and how did it happen?” asked John’s wife Margaret...All the explanations for air disasters like Lockerbie and the Boeing disaster off New York have been studied in detail by John. He believes the new probe will be a help and he hoped it would bring the whole debate about Tuskar out in the open.

“There are so many stories and so many theories being floated about how it could have happened. The answer had to lie somewhere”, he added.

“Nobody had ever given the families explanations for those questions. All of the mystery and conflict needs to be cleared up. Like all the other families I would like a full inquiry but what we are getting at this stage is better than nothing”, said John.

He pointed out that all the families who met last year at the 30th anniversary Mass in Cork were very frustrated by the long delay in setting up an inquiry. He often spoke to a relative of the pilot of the plane who lives in nearby Lattin and everybody involved wanted the whole issue to be cleared up as quickly as possible.

John remembers that Mary’s path to Aer Lingus started two years prior to the tragedy. Mary, a striking and elegant young woman, won the “Pride of Tipperary” title in 1966. She was crowned by the then Mayor Limerick who suggested a career in Shannon. Mary initially worked in the duty free area before accepting her wings as an air hostess one month before she was killed.

“Everybody was thrilled for Mary. She wanted to become an air hostess and she was delighted embarking on her new career. Mary should not have been on the St. Phelim flight that day. She had switched flight with another air hostess”, said her brother.

Thirty one years on the pain and anguish felt by her family has not diminished. Pictures of Mary take pride of place in the Coughlan living room - pictures of John’s sister being crowned Pride of Tipperary and in her Aer Lingus uniform the day she was given her wings. Beside the pictures stand the huge trophy Mary won when crowned Pride of Tipperary.

Thanks to the Nationalist & Munster Advertiser.