Plane suffered ‘substantial damage’ after hitting soft sand and flipping at Magilligan Point

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has published a short bulletin of the accident which involved a Champion 7GCBC Citabria and occurred at the popular beach on May 20.

"During a landing on a beach, the aircraft nosed over and suffered substantial damage when it encountered a patch of soft sand in the last half of the rollout,” according to the AAIB’s August bulletin.

Rachel Moore, a Derry Journal reader, was at the stunning beach in Co. Derry with her partner when the accident occurred and they assisted in helping the pilot along with other visitors to the beauty spot who were in the area at the time.

“When the plane landed and flipped over [my] partner helped with bystanders to pull plane back the right way up. Thankfully the lucky pilot was ok and helped with the ‘tug of war,’” she told the ‘Journal’, referring to the use of ropes to salvage the aircraft.

The Co. Derry accident was listed among a series of air accidents and incidents which were not subject to a field or full correspondence investigation by the AAIB.

The pilot was the only occupant of the plane when the accident occurred and thankfully suffered only minor injuries.

Details of the incident were ‘wholly, or largely, based on information provided by the aircraft commander at the time of reporting and in some cases additional information from other sources’, the AAIB stated.

Light aircraft bounced and crashed into a fence post in Co. Derry