The empty plane crashed through a ditch before bursting into flames at Mullinahone airfield earlier this year.
It’s understood the pilot of the vintage plane was in a hurry to take flight when the incident happened on July 5th.
A report from the Air Accident Investigations Unit states that the 54 year old pilot had intended flying his aircraft from Tipperary to Sligo Airport on the day in question.
He had brought the 1958 Coopavia Piel CP301A out of the hangar at Mullinahone airfield to hand-start the engine by swinging the propeller.
There was no one on board the aircraft when the pilot admits that he set the throttle to “a higher than the usual setting”, and turned on the ignition switch.
However, the aircraft wheels had not been chocked and when the pilot swung the propeller the engine started and the aircraft moved across the airfield, where it crashed into a boundary hedge and overturned on an electric fence in a neighbouring field.
This caused a fire destroying the aircraft, but there were no injuries sustained in the incident.
The pilot has admitted that he was “in somewhat of a hurry to get airborne” on the day in question.
The AAIU welcomed the pilot’s assistance and his willingness to have the incident highlighted for safety purposes.
