Staines air disaster remembered 50 years on

All 118 people on board perished when the British European Airways Flight 548.

Twelve of Ireland's most prominent businessmen, among them Cavan native Con A. Smith, died 50-years-ago today (June 18, 1972) in what became known as the Staines air disaster.

All 118 people on board perished when the British European Airways Flight 548, scheduled to fly  from London Heathrow to Brussels, crashed near Staines, Middlesex, England, soon after take-off.

The British European Airways Trident taking the party of Irish businessmen attached to the Confederation of Irish Industry, a forerunner to today's Ibec, of which Mr Smith was President.

They have been travelling for discussions with EEC officials ahead of Ireland's entry to the now European Union.

All the men were senior in their own companies and in industry organisations.

Their deaths were described at the time by then Minister for Finance, George Colley, as a “most serious blow to the whole nation”.

Mr. Smith, originally from Lavey, had been re-elected President of the C.I.I. for a second year only the weekend before the crash.

He added: “To a small country like ours on the threshold of the new European challenge their dynamism and their realistic grasp of the problems facing industry will be sorely missed.”

Mr Smith is remembered in his native county in the dedication of the people's park in Cavan Town, from land donated to the town by his father Con P Smith.

See next week's Anglo-Celt newspaper for full report.