State accepts responsibility for death of pilot cadet

David Jevens and Derek Furniss died when their plane crashed near Cornamona

The funeral cortege of Air Corps Cadet David Jevens  at St Alphonsus Church Barntown, Co Wexford, in October 2009. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons
The funeral cortege of Air Corps Cadet David Jevens at St Alphonsus Church Barntown, Co Wexford, in October 2009. Photograph: Brenda Fitzsimons

Minister for Defence Alan Shatter yesterday expressed "sincere regret" for the events that led to the death of a 21-year-old trainee Air Corps pilot on a flight training mission in Connemara.

Cadet David Jevens (21), Glynn, Co Wexford – along with his flight instructor, Capt Derek Furniss (32), from Rathfarnham, Dublin – died when their two-seater F265 Pilatus PC-9(M) training plane crashed near Cornamona, Co Galway, on October 12th, 2009.

Donal Jevens, father of the deceased, sued the Minister for Defence and the Attorney General following his son's death on the eve of his 22nd birthday. At Galway Circuit Civil Court yesterday, Conor Roberts, for the plaintiff, informed Judge Raymond Fullham the defendants had accepted liability and there was permission for judgment for his client for the maximum amount of €25,395.

Counsel for Mr Shatter, John Kiely, faced the cadet’s parents, Liz and Donal Jevens, and read a statement which expressed the Minister’s “sincere regret” for what happened. It stated that three separate investigations by the air accident investigation unit of the Department of Transport, a coroner’s inquest and a military court of inquiry had all agreed Cadet Jevens “bore no responsibility of any kind” for the crash.

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'No way to blame'
"The defendants have admitted liability in relation to this tragic accident. The Minister for Defence wishes to again reassure the parents and siblings of the late Cadet David Jevens that he was in no way remotely to blame for the dreadful tragedy which occurred that day."