Fearful that attempts could be made during the review to attach blame for the accident to any of the deceased crew, the families of Ms Fitzpatrick, Mr Duffy and Mr Smith hired legal counsel to represent the deceased trio at the Review Board hearings.
Were they advised of the purpose of the AAIU investigations?
Foreword
This safety investigation is exclusively of a technical nature and the Final Report reflects the determination of the AAIU regarding the circumstances of this occurrence and its probable and contributory causes. In accordance with the provisions of Annex 13 to the Convention on International Civil Aviation, Regulation (EU) No 996/20102 and Statutory Instrument No. 460 of 20093 , safety investigations are in no case concerned with apportioning blame or liability.
They are independent of, separate from and without prejudice to any judicial or administrative proceedings to apportion blame or liability. The sole objective of this safety investigation and Final Report is the prevention of accidents and incidents. Accordingly, it is inappropriate that AAIU Reports should be used to assign fault or blame or determine liability, since neither the safety investigation nor the reporting process has been undertaken for that purpose.
Extracts from this Report may be published providing that the source is acknowledged, the material is accurately reproduced and that it is not used in a derogatory or misleading context.