The Department of Transport's Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) has published a report into the crash of a Manx2.com Fairchild turboprop at Cork Airport on February 10, 2011 where six people died and six survived, four with severe injuries.
The report states that the crash was caused by a disastrous loss of control during an attempted 'go-around' by the aircraft in heavy fog. Poor decisions by the air crew were also blamed, as were crew fatigue; attempting an approach in poor visibility; a power level set at a prohibited level; a power differential between the two engines; and inappropriate flight crew pairing.
A lack of oversight by Spain's aviation regulator of the Spanish airline operators has also been highlighted as a contributory factor, since it emerged that the Spanish regulator was not aware that the operator was using that specific aircraft on Irish passenger services.
The AAIU found "systemic deficiencies at the operational, organisational and regulatory levels", in relation to pilot training, scheduling of flight crews, maintenance and inadequate oversight of the operation by both the operator and the state of registration (Spain).