Fifty years after the crash of an Aer Lingus Viscount airliner, special event station EI5ØAOM remembers this tragic event and honours the 61 lives lost. It still represents the largest single loss of life in Irish civil aviation history.
Late on a crisp, clear Sunday morning—24 March 1968—an Aer Lingus Viscount airliner, registration EI-AOM, left Cork bound for London Heathrow. Within ten minutes of takeoff, the plane developed problems. Many people on the ground, on their way home from church, witnessed several spiral dives as the pilot tried desperately to keep control of the stricken aircraft. 42 minutes after takeoff EI-AOM crashed into the sea near the Tuskar Rock Lighthouse. All 61 crew and passengers, from Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, the United States and the Netherlands, lost their lives that day. Rumours of an errant missile strike and cover-ups by the Irish and British governments abounded. The first inquiry in 1971 answered few questions but a second inquiry in 2002 found that the Viscount had lost part of its tail through fatigue or maybe a bird strike which led to a progressively uncontrollable situation that ended in a dive into the sea. Whatever the cause, it seems certain that those on board would have known that the end was near and yet had half an hour before their fate was sealed.
Special event station EI5ØAOM—fifty years after the crash of EI-AOM—has been licensed to operate January through March 2018 to remember this tragic event. The station will devote one day beginning 22 January to remember each of the four crew and 57 passengers who died, with operations culminating on the fiftieth anniversary of the crash, 24 March 2018.
QSL via EI2KA, direct with $2 and self-addressed envelope or via bureau. Log will be uploaded periodically to LoTW for non-paper confirmations.
Ads for direct QSL:
Tim McKnight, Gortadrohid, Ringarogy Island, Baltimore, West Cork, Ireland.
Late on a crisp, clear Sunday morning—24 March 1968—an Aer Lingus Viscount airliner, registration EI-AOM, left Cork bound for London Heathrow. Within ten minutes of takeoff, the plane developed problems. Many people on the ground, on their way home from church, witnessed several spiral dives as the pilot tried desperately to keep control of the stricken aircraft. 42 minutes after takeoff EI-AOM crashed into the sea near the Tuskar Rock Lighthouse. All 61 crew and passengers, from Ireland, Britain, Switzerland, Belgium, Sweden, the United States and the Netherlands, lost their lives that day. Rumours of an errant missile strike and cover-ups by the Irish and British governments abounded. The first inquiry in 1971 answered few questions but a second inquiry in 2002 found that the Viscount had lost part of its tail through fatigue or maybe a bird strike which led to a progressively uncontrollable situation that ended in a dive into the sea. Whatever the cause, it seems certain that those on board would have known that the end was near and yet had half an hour before their fate was sealed.
Special event station EI5ØAOM—fifty years after the crash of EI-AOM—has been licensed to operate January through March 2018 to remember this tragic event. The station will devote one day beginning 22 January to remember each of the four crew and 57 passengers who died, with operations culminating on the fiftieth anniversary of the crash, 24 March 2018.
QSL via EI2KA, direct with $2 and self-addressed envelope or via bureau. Log will be uploaded periodically to LoTW for non-paper confirmations.
Ads for direct QSL:
Tim McKnight, Gortadrohid, Ringarogy Island, Baltimore, West Cork, Ireland.