Tragedy in Shannon - 50 years ago today

The Irish Times ran a story today marking 50 years since the crash of an Alitalia flight near Shannon Airport as it flew Naples to New York Idlewind (now JFK) airport. The flight's only scheduled stop was in Rome to pick up more passengers.  It landed in Shannon only because strong headwinds made it necessary to pick up more fuel.  After a stopover of just over an hour, when the passengers shopping in the terminals while the plane took on 7,000 gallons of fuel, it took off again at 1:34a.m. early Friday morning in cold but clear weather. 

Original Irish Times graphic from 27/2/60

The four-engine propellered aircraft seemed to lose power about a mile from Shannon airport, banked heavily to the left and crashed through the walls of the old Clonloghan graveyard adjacent to the ruins of the 10th century Clonloghan church. The explosion was heard up to 17 miles away.  The plane continued to plough through the South-East of the graveyard, destroying tombstones, and into the field of grazing sheep beyond. One eye-witness described it as "a scene from hell". A local priest, Father Thomas Comerford, who arrived on the scene soon after the crash told reports, “There were bodies scattered all over the field.  People were mixed up with the remains of the sheep the plane had killed.”

At first count, out of the 40 passengers and 12 crew, there were 27 dead, 2 missing and 23 survivors.  Bodies were found up to a mile from the crash site on the mud flats of the Shannon. The eventual death toll would be 34 - the first ever passenger deaths for the Italian national airline.  Luckily though, the Douglas DC7 was only about half full.  Survivors were taken to Ennis County Hospital and to the Barringtons and Regional Hospitals in Limerick. 

Clonloghan church and graveyard - where the plane hit

Two Italian nurses were flown into Shannon to work in the local hospitals with the survivors as there were some language difficulties between medical staff and patients.  One initial survivor, a Capuchin Monk, Father Giuseppe Cacioli, had been given the last rights amongst the plane wreckage by the local priest, Father Thomas Comerford.  The monk survived almost another week before eventually dying from his injuries in the Regional Hospital.  Another victim was the heavily-pregnant wife of a 35 year old Yugoslav baker who was travelling to join him in America – they had recently married after escaping into Italy from communist Yugoslavia.

The Mayor of Limerick, Alderman John Carew T.D. sent telegram of condolence to Italian ambassador

The official crash investigation carried out by the Department of Transport and Power found no definitive cause of the crash.  No contact was received from the plane prior to crashing, and all seemed well with the flight until a few moments before the crash

10 months earlier, the same model of Douglas aircraft – a DC7C Douglas -  also flown by Alitalia, developed propeller problems over Atlantic.  One of its four propellers finally broke off mid-flight, though the plane managed to land safely in Shannon on 3 engines.

In these early decades of commercial air travel, accidents were more common and when Shannon was a major refuelling stop for transatlantic flights.

• 9 died in a TWA crash as it approached to land in Shannon in December 1946
• 30 died in a Pan-Am crash coming in to land in Shannon in April 1948
• 28 died when KLM Flight 633 crashed after take-off from Shannon in September 1954
• 84 died on a resident Airlines flight when it crashed into the River Shannon in September 1961