Irish journalists killed in wine race

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 6

Irish journalists killed in wine race

NZPA-Reuter Eastbourne Four top Irish journalists taking part in a race to take back the first Beaujolais Nouveau wine from France were killed yesterday when their light plane crashed and burned during a rainstorm. The eight passengers and the pilot died when the twin-engine plane hit a hill near Eastbourne, a resort town on the English south coast, during a flight between Dublin and Paris. The Dublin company that chartered the plane said those aboard included Niall Hanley, the editor of Ire-

land’s best-selling afternoon newspaper, the “Evening Herald." Also aboard were John Feeney, the “Herald’s” columnist, Kevin Marron, a former editor of the “Sunday World” and recently its columnist, and Tony Heneghan, a columnist for the “Irish Independent” newspaper. They were taking part in an annual race to bring the first of France’s Beaujolais crop to restaurant tables north of the English Channel. Their plane crashed in a rain-storm into a forest. Villagers reported hear-

mg a big bang and then seeing the plane erupt in flames.

Witnesses said the plane flew over Eastbourne’s seafront, apparently in trouble, minutes before the crash.

It had been chartered by a Dublin night-club owner, Mr Pat Gibbons, who was on board with the Frenchborn manager of a Dublin hotel he owned, Francois Schelbaum, the charter firm said. Mr Gibbons had said the party planned to fly to Le Bourget airport, near Paris, rush ito a drop-point outside the city to pick up the wine