Northern Ireland

Hopes fade for missing air crash pair off Antrim coast

Some of the debris belonging to the aircraft which went missing off the Co Antrim coast is brought ashore at Glenarm Marina. Picture by Kevin McAuley
Some of the debris belonging to the aircraft which went missing off the Co Antrim coast is brought ashore at Glenarm Marina. Picture by Kevin McAuley Some of the debris belonging to the aircraft which went missing off the Co Antrim coast is brought ashore at Glenarm Marina. Picture by Kevin McAuley

THE search for two occupants of a microlight aircraft which crashed off the Antrim coast is now being treated as a recovery operation.

Hopes of finding the two missing people alive faded over the weekend as search efforts on Saturday and Sunday found no new traces.

The Ikarus C42 disappeared after leaving City of Derry Airport for Scotland on Thursday.

On Saturday the PSNI took over the search and along with volunteer group Community Rescue Service Northern Ireland was involved in an operation along the Antrim coast.

Sonar equipment and a search helicopter have been deployed, but due to cloud cover yesterday the latter could not be used at all times.

A spokesman for the PSNI confirmed that police were liaising with family members and the operation was no longer being treated as a rescue but a recovery one.

Sean McCarry of Community Rescue Service Northern Ireland said search teams operated on Saturday and Sunday from 7.30am to 11.30pm.

They have covered a large area of water north and south of Carnlough, as far north as Garron Point and including Carnlough Bay, but remains hopeful of recovering the wreckage.

"We just have to try and keep at it. We're trying to cover every inch of the sea bed, but it is a lot of ground," he said.

The names of the two missing people have yet to be released.

A major land and sea search operation on both the Irish and Scottish coasts involving coastguard helicopters, RNLI teams from Larne and Red Bay as well as merchant ships and leisure craft recovered debris from the missing aircraft on Friday afternoon north of Glenarm, Co Antrim.

Wreckage, including the tail fin, wasalso discovered by a Dublin couple who were on holiday in their yacht, 1km off the coast.

East Antrim SDLP councillor Margaret Anne McKillop expressed her gratitude to those involved the search and rescue operation.

“As always they have acted with professionalism and dedication in a desperate situation and when conditions were against them," she said.

Originally developed from hang-gliders, microlight aeroplanes weigh around 265kg and are restricted to carrying two people.

Capable of speeds up to 100 miles per hour, they can travel long distances but are usually used over shorter areas.