Cork Airport - Incidents and Accidents

Incidents and Accidents

• On 24 March 1968, Aer Lingus Flight 712 departed Cork at 10.32 for a flight to London Heathrow and was cleared for FL170. The crew reported at the Bannow reporting point at FL170 at 10.57 and were instructed to change frequency to London Airways. Just eight seconds after first reporting on the London air traffic control frequency, a message was received which was later interpreted as "Twelve thousand feet descending spinning rapidly". The Vickers Viscount descended and struck the sea 1.7 NM (3.1 km; 2.0 mi) from Tuskar Rock. All 61 passengers including crew died on board.
• On 10 February 2011, a Flight Avia Metroliner SW4, with flight number NM7100, operating for Manx2 from Belfast-City to Cork crashed on landing, killing six people and injuring a further six. The commuter flight from Belfast had 10 passengers and two crew on board when it crashed in heavy fog at 9.45am. It was reported that it was the aircraft's third attempt at landing in foggy conditions. The aircraft registered EC-ITP, ended up upside down adjacent to taxiway C (Charlie) just past the turnpad at Runway 17.
• On 22 May 2011, at around 4.30pm a man approached a member of the Garda Síochána in Cork City Centre who was sitting in his traffic corp jeep. The man got into the vehicle began to beat up the Garda, produced a knife, before slashing his face, the Garda then jumped from his jeep. The man then hijacked the Garda's traffic corps jeep before, hitting vehicles en-route to Cork Airport while Gardaí gave chase. At around 4.50pm the man arrived at Cork Airport, rammed through the perimeter fence near the Cargo terminal (Gate 19), before abandoning the Garda jeep after it broke down, he then again produced a knife, and again hijacked a vehicle which belonged to the Airport Fire Service, by this time Air Traffic Control had suspended all operations. The man began to drive erratically coming into close contact with a Thomas Cook flight driving underneath the aircraft at high speed, the incident was captured on YouTube by a passenger waiting to board a flight. The man proceeded to ram several Garda and airport vehicles, before attempting to ram an Aer Lingus aircraft bound for Amsterdam. The man's vehicle stalled which prevented him from ramming the Aer Lingus jet, the jeep halted just feet from the Airbus A320-200 aircraft, where members of the Armed Gardaí subdued the man by tasering him, during the chase in the airport another Garda was injured and transported to hospital after his car was rammed by the assailant. Flights where resumed after the man was removed from airport property and the perimeter secured.