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A RETIRED GARDA is working to track down the family of a man who was killed in the 1968 Tuskar Rock plane crash off the coast of Wexford.
The man’s remains were found a number of months after the incident but he has never been identified and is currently buried at the memorial for the crash.
On Sunday 24 March 1968, Aer Lingus Flight 712 from Cork to London Heathrow crashed off the Wexford coast.
The aircraft – a Vickers Viscount named “St. Phelim” – went down into the sea just off Tuskar Rock, killing all 61 passengers and crew.
Of the 57 passengers, 35 were Irish, nine were Swiss, six were from Belgium, five were British, and two were American. Only 14 bodies were ever recovered from the scene.
There were 33 males unaccounted for, and their bodies were never recovered, Kealy told TheJournal.ie. The brother of one of these men, Jerome McCormack, contacted Kealy a number of years ago to ask for his help as he had read about success he had in identifying the body of a Welsh woman using DNA.
“He had got an exhumation in the year 2000, the minister had granted permission and they attempted to get DNA from it. At that time it failed but in 2010 or 2011 he came to me and asked for help,” explained Kealy.
He gave me a whole pile of paperwork and when I was going through it, I found this serial number from a lab in England. I got onto them and they still had what was taken in 2000 which was a piece of the femur, the thigh bone.
“By this time they had new technology, different methods of extraction had been advanced and they managed to get a DNA sample from it.”
A full profile was developed but there was no match with Jerome McCormack’s brother Niall.
Since then Kealy has been working through the list of 33 unaccounted-for men and now has 20 left – he has eliminated the others through DNA testing.
He wants to find family members of each of the deceased to test them for a possible match.
Theories
The cause of the crash has never been determined. There was no black box recorder on the plane. One popular theory is that a rogue RAF missile was responsible for the crash.
Other theories include that the plane may have been struck by a pilotless drone or that it was downed by mistake by a British warship – the HMS Penelope.
A 2002 review by the Air Accident Investigation Unit found that paperwork relating to a routine inspection of the aircraft carried out in 1967 was missing. The issues with inspection of the aircraft refocused theories onto its maintenance.
‘Put a name on the man’
There was a 50th anniversary ceremony in Wexford in March last year and Kealy said he met some more of the families there and managed to collect three more samples for comparison. He expects to get the results in the new year.
But he wants to urge the other families of male passengers who were unaccounted for to contact him and provide a DNA sample. So many years later and with relatives spread across the globe, tracking them down is a difficult and time-consuming process.
“Some of the families who haven’t come forward yet are Irish. You see people wouldn’t know we’re doing this so they don’t know to get in touch,” he said. “It would be great to put a name on the man and for someone to have a grave to go to.”
If any of the family members of these men want to get in touch with Gerry, they can do so by emailing gerardkealy@hotmail.com.
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Puts are own problems and concerns into a different perspective.
Where has the humanity gone? Climate change is manifesting itself every day in some or other part of the world.
These poor people, just trying to live and look after their families, totally powerless in the face of what the climate is doing to them, dependent on the charity and goodwill of others.
And on the other hand, you have the like of Putin and Johnson, selfish, power hungry men, totally oblivious to the suffering they are causing to the people around them.
I fear for the future of the world and if there is a God, I hope that he balances things out for all of mankind, and soon.
@Mary Walshe: We can’t wait to have perfect leaders or perfect climate or even for a god to do something. People are dying right now and we can change that Right now all those people need is food and surely you and i and everyone else can do that. I’m glad they can depend in a little way on their fellow man to help them ,ie charities. So until that better world comes let’s just put our hands in our pockets and help. That’s humanity, in action! It’s in our control.
Ever since I was a little boy and that was not yesterday, there has been famine and suffering in Africa. Charities have applied much needed ‘plasters’ to each problem but the problems continue. Politicians have bled their people dry and created vast wealth for themselves in the process and local politicians have used their positions in well paid jobs in charities as stepping boards to better paid jobs in politics, where they promote themselves and forget about the charities. Donations, much of which go, not to those in need but to CEO’s salaries and collectors commission. A radical approach has to be taken and focused on the political systems within those countries by those World bodies i.e. the U.N. so little starving girls can plan for their long term future. Charities know that without tackling the politicians/U.N. etc they, albeit unintentionally, prolong the little girls suffering and lack of hope. Plasters won’t prevent hunger. These people deserve better.
@Barrycelona: Very true. But also, what kind of person has numerous kids knowing that some or all of them will die from malnutrition or starvation because they can’t take care of them.
@Jim Smith: Poverty!! Just like Ireland in pre war times. It was inevitable that several children would die and that was one of the reasons people had such large families. Poorer families have always had more children. The more children that survived, the greater chance of a bigger ‘ income’. Men also have a lot to answer for, in the way they used and treated women, even in today’s World
@Jim Smith: Poverty!! Just like Ireland in pre war times. It was inevitable that several children would die and that was one of the reasons people had such large families. Poorer families have always had more children. The more children that survived, the greater chance of a bigger ‘ income’. Men also have a lot to answer for, in the way they used and treated women, even in today’s World.
@Barrycelona: Well no matter how poor I was, I wouldn’t have many children knowing that I couldn’t feed all of them and that some will die because I might get more money. That’s sick. The thing is that the Africans that I work with agree with me. The media seems to portray Africans as helpless sadists. Many are highly educated and intelligent people who care if their children live or die.
Why is this under ‘Ukraine’ news?
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