What Really Happened To Aer Lingus Flight 712? (Tuskar Rock Disaster) - DISASTER BREAKDOWN

the curious observation that some other object fell near the Saltee Islands, very far from where the plane ended up. This lines up with where the problem may have started before leaving the plane uncontrollable until it crashed. The accounts of those eyewitnesses could not specify exactly

what

that object was. Some suggested it was a piece of debris, others said it was another plane. Regardless of dozens of people telling the same story, an object fell from the sky and splashed into the water near the Saltee Islands. To this day, no one knows

what

this mysterious object was and it was never found.

As expected, the fall of a mysterious object from the sky was prone to some speculation, and with researchers reaching a dead end and the similarity in dozens of accounts that day, it was necessary to consider them. Obviously, some have suggested that it could have been a critical part of the Aer Lingus plane. The vertical tail stabilizer was recovered and found along with the main section of the wreckage at Tuskar Rock. Eliminating the thought of the tail section breaking. However, according to reports, including a revised report published in 2000, although sections of the elevator spring tab were found, that is, these outer parts of the stabilizer structure highlighted here, the elevators and the fixed sections of the horizontal stabilizer were not were found at all.

The discovery of a fragment of the elevator spring flange, washed up on the beach near the town of Rosslare, has been attributed by some as evidence that a failure or breakage of the elevators had occurred during the

flight

. Damage analysis of the recovered wreckage they had could only reveal that the damage caused to the plane was caused by the impact with the water. There is no evidence or indication that such a breakage occurred, not enough remains could be found, and of all the remains that were found, no conclusive evidence could be obtained. which

really

didn't help much with the investigation.

What all of this could tell investigators was the likely way the plane crashed. It is believed to have entered the sea at a shallow angle with moderate speed and considerable downward vertical velocity. The plane did not fall directly into the sea and the fuselage did not break in

flight

. But what could cause something like that to happen, for a part of the plane to simply break? If the crash was the result of, say, a plane in poor condition, then it was certainly not an isolated incident. Similarities were drawn between this accident and many others. An investigator points out an accident that would involve a viscount and that would occur in 1980 in Indonesia. 37 people died in an accident that Indonesian investigators specifically attributed to a failure of the elevator's spring tab.

The same piece that reached the coast of Ireland. However, pieces falling from a plane were not unique to the Vickers Viscount. Perhaps it is indicative of a larger problem within aviation when these planes were built. Take, for example, the crash of Partnair Flight 394, where more parallels can be drawn. It was a plane crash involving a plane similar in age to the Aer Lingus Viscount and built at the same time, although from a different manufacturer. Off the coast of Denmark, at cruising altitude, the pilots suddenly lost control of their plane before crashing into the sea, killing 55 people.

This accident, which occurred much later in 1989, was found to be caused by structural failure of the rudder, this time induced by poor maintenance and the use of unsuitable and counterfeit aircraft parts. It is therefore not unusual for accidents of this type to occur, even in the years since the Irish

disaster

. And if maintenance is an area to look at when analyzing Flight 712, it is worth noting the fact that some of Aer Lingus' own records on maintenance work on the crashed plane appeared to disappear or were found missing from its offices and were absent. Of the investigation.

Those maintenance records for the plane have not been seen since. There are other theories about what was that rogue object that was observed falling into the sea. Speculation began to grow that there was a mid-air collision of some kind, and perhaps the object people saw was another plane. Although at first glance this wouldn't make much sense, no other aircraft were reported missing that day. However, support for this theory increased after an intriguing finding several years later. In 1974, a fishing boat stumbled upon a large red metallic object in this region of the sea. When examined further, it showed the resemblance to an airplane, but upon closer inspection, it also looked nothing like what one would think of when one imagines an airplane.

It looked like an airplane, but it had no cabin or windows and was painted bright red. What this object actually was was a UAV, an unmanned aerial vehicle called Jindivik. Obviously, this presents more questions than answers. What is this thing? Where he came from? And did it have anything to do with the Tuskar Rock

disaster

? So, let's answer these three questions. A Jindivik is effectively a remotely controlled target drone. They originated half a world away, in Australia, and were used by the Australian Air Force and Navy for target practice. They can fly fast and even ascend to altitudes above 50,000 feet.

Mimicking a fighter jet, these fictional planes were designed to be shot down, they were target drones. Several of these target drones arrived in the United Kingdom to be used for the same purposes by the British Royal Air Force. Okay, so you might be able to see what narrative started to emerge and where it might go and it's a little bit deeper. The Irish Sea, shared with Britain and Ireland, has been used for a number of military exercises, including around the time of the 1968 Aer Lingus crash. Both the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy had been using the waters here for training and, of course, target practice.

When the British acquired these Jindivik aircraft, they launched them from a base at Llanbedr on the west coast of Wales. When the British Army carried out its exercises in the Irish Sea, it did so within an exclusion zone that was largely limited to Cardigan Bay. However, this area is still only a few minutes' flight from the Irish coast. So, for those who believed in the theory of a possible collision with a foreign object, the possibility that Aer Lingus Flight 712 had collided with a Jindivik seemed plausible. In fact, researchers over the years have had to consider this possibility, and it has been explored in official reports.

A mid-air collision that causes deterioration or separation of the flight control surfaces, that would explain it. Given that the purpose of these Jindivik aircraft was target practice, many also raised the consideration that the Aer Lingus aircraft that day was mistaken for a Jindivik, which of course raises a rather uncomfortable possibility. Some believe Aer Lingus Flight 712 was inadvertently shot down by the British. You see, although the British Army got these target drones from Australia for use with the Royal Air Force and Navy, what a lot of people

really

latched onto was who else was using them too.

Because what you will also find on the west coast of Wales is a military base in the town of Aberporth. Jindivik aircraft flew over the water and missiles were launched here to shoot them down on training missions. Then, of course, another narrative had formed that perhaps a stray missile could have hit the Viscount. Like any other theory proposed in the investigations, the missile theory lacked the necessary conclusive evidence. This also applies to Jindivik's theory, because there is a problem with British involvement in this story. A discrepancy in time that does not align and clouds the plausibility of these theories.

The Tuskar Rock disaster

happened

on a Sunday, Jindiviks were never released on Sundays. It was confirmed that none of these planes were in the air that day and no one was firing missiles into the sky that day either. If there was military activity in the region, the relevant aeronautical authorities would have been notified as on other occasions, and what is called a “Notice to Airmen” or NOTAM would have been issued. When Captain Bernard O'Beirne and First Officer Paul Heffernan reported to work that day, they would have reviewed their flight plan and reviewed any relevant NOTAMS. It would also have been quite explicit: "Don't fly here, they're launching

rock

ets." Analysis of the Jindivik wreckage found off the Irish coast in 1974 determined that the UAV had been at sea for no more than a year, quashing speculation that it had anything to do with Flight 712.

For many in Ireland, including According to relatives of the deceased and investigators, this was enough for many people to say that Flight 712 was unlikely to collide with a foreign object or be shot down by a missile. The theory still persists as there are apparently inconsistencies, as one source says, in the logbooks of some of the British warships that had been in the region. The British Ministry of Defense also had to admit that some documentation on the whereabouts of its ships appeared to have been lost. Although many different theories have emerged about what exactly

happened

to the plane, after multiple independent reports and investigations, as the years have gone on, people have tended to gravitate towards the plane's maintenance defects and poor airworthiness.

Much criticism is directed at Aer Lingus' poor maintenance record keeping. For many years, Aer Lingus had wanted to improve its fleet and the Viscounts finally retired in 1973. Over the decades, Aer Lingus became a highly reputable airline and one of the safest in the world. Since then, there has never been a hull loss from an Aer Lingus aircraft. Aviation safety in Ireland has improved substantially; The deadliest air crash since then was that of Manx 2 Flight 7100, which also involved Cork. That accident killed 6 people. Tuskar Rock has never been forgotten in the country. A monument has been erected and services are still held for those who died that day.

It is usually standard convention for an airline to change the flight number when there has been a high-profile accident. However, Aer Lingus still operates the Cork to London route, although currently with an Airbus A320 and still retains flight number 712, which has never changed. Naturally, and it is important to understand, many people have been disappointed that this case has remained unsolved for so long. Successive Irish governments and even scant help from the UK have failed to recover more rubble and conclusive answers. Perhaps clues to what really happened still lie at the bottom of the Irish Sea. Patreon Outro Hello everyone.

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