A commuter flight carrying two crew and 10 passengers has crashed at Cork Airport killing six of those who were on board and injuring six others. The tragedy occurred after the pilot attempted to land for a third time in dense fog. Among those who died was Brendan McAleese, a cousin of the Irish President’s husband.

One of the other victims was Pat Cullinan who was a KPMG partner in Belfast. Another was Captain Michael Evans who was Belfast’s deputy harbour commissioner. Of the survivors, two are in intensive care suffering from injuries to the spine, abdomen and chest, according to Cork University Hospital’s head of emergency medicine, Dr Gerry McCarthy. He also confirmed that two others remained in a serious condition and that two were doing well.

The Manx2 flight had departed Belfast City Airport at 7.50am local time and crashed just before 10.00am. According to the Air Accident Investigation Unit’s senior inspector, Jurgen Whyte, the plane inverted after hitting the runway and then burst into flames.

He added that it would take some time to properly examine the radar pictures and tapes from air traffic control before being able to say exactly what caused the incident. He went on to point out that vital information would be recovered from the flight’s data recorder to explain what was going on in the final seconds before the crash.

Manx2 has confirmed that the accident occurred on the third approach after the pilot had tried to land the aircraft twice in heavy fog.