Tuesday 10 June 2014 16.31 The inquest into the deaths of six people in a plane crash at Cork Airport three years ago has opened.
The inquest is hearing from survivors of the crash as well as from members of the emergency services, who were first at the scene, and from air accident investigators.
The 19-seater Metroliner aircraft was on its way from Belfast with ten passengers and two crew on board when it crashed in dense fog.
It crashed after failing to land on its third attempt at Cork Airport on the morning of 10 February 2011.
Waterford man Donal Walsh, who was the first passenger to give evidence at the inquest, said that after the crash there was no one screaming in the plane.
Heather Elliot, who also survived the crash, told the inquest she was very frightened after she survived the crash, believing she would be burned alive.
She said after the crash she smelled fuel and was very frightened.
She added that she and another passenger, Laurence Wilson, said a prayer.
Mr Wilson said he thought the plane was not slowing down enough to make a safe landing.
He also said that when he looked out the window on landing all he saw was grass and not runway.
Survivor Peter Cowley said he slept for most of the flight and only awoke on the second attempt to land.
He recalled the pilot coming out into the cabin to explain that the weather was bad.
His memory after that is of texting his mother to say the plane would be diverted and then waking up in hospital.
He told the inquest he wanted to thank gardaí and emergency services for their work that day.
Another survivor, Mark Dickens, said the whole episode from the plane leaving the thick cloud to seeing the ground was only a matter of seconds.
He recalled screaming "we are going to crash" and afterwards he said he smelled smoke or petrol.
He also recalled hearing a fellow passenger saying "my name is Brendan, I can't breath please help".
Mr Dickens said that he believes the plane landed at an angle.
He recalled someone from the emergency services shouting "we're here, we're here, don't worry".
John McCarthy of the Cork Airport Police told the inquest about the efforts that he and other emergency services personnel made to rescue people from the aircraft.
He said cutting equipment had to be used to get several of the passengers out of their seats.
Mr McCarthy told the inquest that most of the fatalities were seated in the forward of the aircraft.
Just before he gave evidence, Mr Dickens asked Coroner Frank O'Connell for copies of the photographs that were presented to the inquest.
Assistant State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster this afternoon told the inquest that one of the casualties of the crash, Brendan McAleese, would have been rendered unconscious immediately and would not have suffered.
She said that he died from a number of injuries, including major head injuries.
Dr Bolster said Mr McAleese could not have been the 'Brendan' Mr Dickens heard call out after the crash as he would have been unconscious.
There was more than one passenger named Brendan on the flight.
Concluding her evidence, Dr Bolster said the six people who died all suffered major head and brain injuries that were common in cases of blunt force trauma such as an aviation crash.
Some of the six suffered haemorrhages and lacerations to their aortas.
The aorta carries the blood supply from the heart around the body and when it is lacerated blood pressure drops immediately, leading to unconsciousness.
One of the investigators in the Air Accident Investigation Unit told the inquest that the decision to attempt a landing for the third time was taken solely by the captain of the Manx Airlines flight, even though the air traffic control tower had told the pilot weather conditions at Kerry Airport, which is just 40 nautical miles away, was much better.
Leo Murray said it was not up to the tower to tell the pilot not to land.
He said it is up to the pilot to know the minimum requirements that an aircraft needs to land safely. "The decision to approach is solely up to the commander", he said.
Mr Murray was responding to a question from Coroner O'Connell, who wanted to know if it was standard for air traffic control to tell an aircraft to divert.
Mr Murray said the pilot had been told the weather in Shannon and Waterford was not good but that conditions in Kerry were.
More information emerging
In the three years and four months since the crash, a considerable amount of information about what happened has come into the public domain.
Principally, the final report of the Air Accident Investigation Unit was published.
It highlighted insufficient consideration of weather conditions by the crew and inadequate oversight of the Spanish company that operated the flight by Spain's aviation regulator.
The inquest, due to last two days, will hear testimony from most of the survivors, as well as from staff of the emergency services.
Relatives of those who died are also expected to attend.
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