INQUEST into death of Irish pilot reveals engine cut out due to ice.
An inquest into the death of an 84-year-old pilot in County Waterford last year has heard that the aircraft crashed after the engine cut out due to ice.
The inquest took place in east Waterford county coroner’s court in Dungarvan
David Ryan from St Alvan’s Park in Sandymount, Co. Dublin was flying solo in his glass fibre two-seater Rutan Long – EZ which he had built from a kit, when he got into difficulty some 18 minutes after taking off from Waterford Airport on March 27th, 2017.
Mr Ryan was running out of options after the engine of his aircraft cut out due to ice in the carburettor, which is located at the rear of the aircraft.
He had sent out a mayday signal and told Waterford air traffic control his engine had stopped and that he had selected a field for landing east of Dungarvan.
However, the inquest heard that he may have noticed fencing and power lines in the field and may have changed his intended landing area as a result.
Leo Murray of the air accident investigation unit of the Department of Transport explained to the inquest that carburettor icing can happen with high levels of moisture in the air but does not always end in a negative outcome if the pilot has a suitable location in which to land their aircraft by allowing it to glide down when the engine cuts out.
Mr Murray added that this was “an unexpected event and with a big enough field there could have been a positive outcome but there were a lot of things against him so he was running out of options.”
According to the Irish Times, Paramedics Paul Keane and Donnagh Wall told how they administered CPR but Mr Ryan had suffered severe trauma to the head and chest and he did not respond and he was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash at Knockahavaun, some three miles east of Dungarvan.
Mr Ryan’s daughter Gillie O’Loughlin said her father had spent 15 years building the aircraft from a kit and had spent another 15 years flying it. He had had a medical check some weeks before the crash where he was found to be in such good health they jokingly referred to him as Dorian Gray.
