Air crash passengers got no safety briefing

AN aviation accident expert told a Galway inquest into an air crash in Connemara in which two men died almost two years ago that it was ultimately the pilot’s obligation to ensure the health of safety of his passengers. The inquest heard yesterday how one survivor of the Cessna Caravan crash at Minna, Inverin on July 5, 2007 was “very annoyed” that nobody had given him a safety brief, had shown him how to secure his seat or had even told him where life jackets and the life raft were.The crash happened shortly before 3pm as the nine-seater single engine plane tried to land at Connemara Airport in Inverin after taking off from Inis Meain just seven minutes earlier.On the previous day, the inquest was told of the nightmare of the seven minute journey where passengers were afraid and hysterical as they realised that the aircraft was going to crash when it overshot the runway and tried to accelerate again to make another attempt at landing.The pilot, Matthew Masterson (59) of Dublin and passenger Paul McNamee (57) of Loughrea, both died at the scene of the crash. Medical evidence given by Consultant Pathologist, Dr Teresa McHale, said they had both suffered extensive internal and external injuries and had died instantly at the point of impact.There were seven other survivors, all of them with severe injuries. They had been part of a group of businessmen and interested parties in the proposed Clifden Airport project and had been brought out to the Aran Islands for a demonstration of the Cessna Caravan, which some of them were considering buying.One of the survivors, Martin Acton, a developer from Clifden who suffered the most horrific injuries in the crash, including the loss of a kidney, spent months in hospital. He told the inquest yesterday that...