THE pilot who crashed a helicopter in the grounds of a Bettystown hotel being used as a school had neither a commercial Irish pilot’s licence nor permission to land on a public beach.

Before the crash ten days ago, Bill Curry, who was flying the twin-engine, 14-seater Sikorsky S-76, dropped off two passengers — Seamus Belton, a businessman and Paddy Byrne, whose company Barrack Homes owned the helicopter.

Belton has described Curry as a “hero” for ensuring nobody was killed when the aircraft crashed minutes later, but other pilots are now questioning his judgement in attempting to land in a confined and built-up area.

After his passengers disembarked on Bettystown beach, Curry took off and tried to land the helicopter in the nearby car park of the Neptune Beach hotel, which was being used as a temporary school. The helicopter’s blades clipped a lamp post and a building before it spun out of control, crashed into a wall, and burst into flames. Four people, including the pilot, were injured.

An aviation source said Curry was flying on an American licence and not a Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) European licence. According to the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), which regulates America’s skies, Curry was issued with his private American pilot’s licence at the end of October 2006. This licence only allows the pilot to carry passengers if no payment is involved.

Investigators have been given a number of videos of the crash taken on camera phones and CCTV cameras. Any prosecution for breaching operating and licensing rules is the responsibility of the IAA, who will begin a regulatory investigation after the crash inquiry, expected to be concluded in two weeks.

There are currently about 160 helicopters registered with the IAA, but approximately another 100 owners have been able to avoid the scrutiny of the Irish safety regulator by importing foreign-registered aircraft.

Under FAA rules, only American citizens can own American-registered aircraft, but Irish companies have been able to get around this by registering helicopters in the names of trustees. The Sikorsky helicopter that crashed had the name Barrack Homes painted on its side, but the aircraft is registered as owned by a trustee, Barrack Aviation, in Delaware in the United States.

According to Belton, the decision to land on Bettystown beach was made after the pilot said he couldn’t fly to Dublin because he didn’t have a flight plan prepared. By landing on Bettystown beach, however, the pilot appears to have breached aviation regulations. Aviators are required to request permission to land from the owner but Meath county council, which is responsible for the beach, said no request was made.

“All it takes is an informal phone call for permission to be granted,” said a spokeswoman. “We have never known a helicopter to land on the beach and we’d consider it unsafe because of the weight of the vehicle on the sand and the danger of it sinking.”

Belton has told reporters that Curry decided to take off from the beach and to land in the Neptune hotel car park because people were gathering around the helicopter. The decision to attempt this second landing in a confined space has been criticised by aviation experts, who say Irish pilots sometimes bow to pressure from their passengers.

One anonymous pilot on the Professional Pilots’ Rumour Network said in a post last week: “Helicopters are being treated like taxis. [People are saying] Park her up in the car park there with the other cars. ’Twill be grand.”

Curry was not available for comment yesterday.

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