Two men who died in Kildare light aircraft crash are named
The two men who died in a plane crash in Co. Kildare on Thursday night have been named.
70-year-old James Price and 58-year-old Aidan Rowsome were killed after their small plane came down in a remote field at Belan near Athy.
The remains of the wreckage have now been removed to the Air Accident Investigation Units facility in Gormanston, Co. Meath, and will be further examined today.
Air accident investigators have said heavy rainfall has not helped their efforts to discover the cause of the aircraft crash in County Kildare on Thursday night.
The wreckage was located by the Rescue 116 helicopter at around 4.30am yesterday morning, three hours after the alarm was raised.
Speaking from the scene, lead investigator Howard Hughes, said there was no distress signal from the plane, but a radio transponder code led rescuers to the crash-site.
Mr Hughes said: "I immediately contacted Dublin Air Traffic Control where they commenced a playback of the ATC tapes for a timeframe when it was assumed the aircraft might have been airborne.
"The trace only lasted for about one minute, it is what is known as a 7,000 conspicuity transponder squawk that the pilot had put on and it showed the position of the aircraft briefly in this area.
"Indications are there was no communication from the aircraft, nor would the pilot have been obliged to have done so.
"Kilrush airfield is situated in airspace where they do not have to make radio contact with any of the major air traffic control units around Ireland - so our understanding at this stage is there was no communication."