The late Howard Cox, pictured in the BD5 aircraft in which he lost his life on Saturday, July 25th.
A preliminary investigation into a fatal light aircraft crash in West Waterford last month has revealed that the pilot was trying to find a field to land in after the engine caught fire whilst airborne.
Howard Cox, a 67- year-old father of one from Devon, was flying from Waterford to Shannon for the Foynes Air Show on Saturday, July 25th when his unique Bede aircraft crashed and burst into flames on farmland in Garranbane, north of Dungarvan.
A report by the Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) Ireland, released yesterday (Monday), revealed that Mr Cox, a highly experienced pilot and engineer, began to suffer engine trouble just eight minutes after he took off from Waterford Airport.
His mayday call was recorded by air traffic control at Shannon Airport
“I have engine failure. I have an engine on fire.” “Roger, are you going back to Waterford,” the radio crew in Shannon asked. Mr Cox replied: “Negative – I’m just going to have to find a field.”
Accident investigators described Mr Cox’s voice as ‘composed and professional’ during his mayday calls and his final communications. The last words he is heard saying were “ending up in a field”.
Site observations show that the aircraft was upright in a hedgerow between two fields when it impacted, the AAIU report noted.
The jet’s left wing had clipped a tree on the boundary of a field before the entire wing broke off. There was evidence of significant fire, post impact. Plumes of black smoke were reported by witnesses and black sooting was evident throughout the wreckage trail.
The wreckage was removed to the AAIU facility at Gormanston, County Meath. The investigation is working to identify, in so far as possible, what fire damage occurred whilst airborne, what fire damage occurred on the ground and the reasons for both the reported engine fire and the loss of elevator authority.
Mr Cox, a marine engineer, was a regular visitor to Ireland and took part in many aviation events here over the years.
His aircraft, based at Waterford Aero Club in Killowen, was a BD5 plane, a type of homebuilt mini-jet immortalised in the opening sequences of the James Bond film, ‘Octopussy’. He had spent 30 years building and perfecting the plane and jet engine.
