Aer Lingus Flight 712

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**Aer Lingus Flight 712**
Summary
Date	March 24, 1968
Type	In-flight airliner structural failure
Site	St George's Channel near Wexford, Ireland
Fatalities	61
Injuries	0
Aircraft
Aircraft type	Vickers Viscount 803
Operator	Aer Lingus
Tail number	EI-AOM
Passengers	57
Crew	4
Survivors	0

Flight 712, operated by Aer Lingus crashed en route from Cork to London on March 24, 1968 killing 61 passengers and crew. The plane, a Vickers Viscount 803 named "St. Phelim", crashed into the sea off Tuskar Rock, County Wexford. Although the investigation into the crash lasted two years, a cause was never determined. There has long been popular speculation that the plane was accidentally shot down by a British experimental missile.^{[citation needed]} Aberporth in West Wales was at the time the most advanced British missile testing station.

In the years since the crash several witnesses have come forward with evidence to support the missile theory, including a crew member of the British ship HMS Penelope. He claims that part of the wreckage that was recovered by Penelope was secretly removed to the UK.^{[citation needed]}

However, in 2002 a review process conducted by the AAIU (Air Accident Investigation Unit) disclosed that Aer Lingus paperwork relating to a routine maintenance inspection carried out on the aircraft in December 1967 was found to be missing in 1968. Moreover, a large body of research was done by the investigators after the accident regarding the maintenance operating plan used for EI-AOM and defects on the aircraft found during analysis of the maintenance records. This research was not referred to in the 1970 report. A new board of investigation was set up by the Irish government and found that the crash was the consequence of a chain of events starting with a failure to the left tail-plane caused by metal fatigue, corrosion, flutter or a bird strike, with the most likely cause being a flutter-induced fatigue failure of the elevator trim tab operating mechanism.