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A Seafire Aircraft (1)

Clogher Head, Co. Louth; and Howth, Co. Dublin.—At 3.40 on the afternoon of the 22nd of May, 1953, the Air Control Officer, Irish Air Corps, at Baldonnell rang up the Clogher Head life-boat station to say that a Seafire aircraft of the Irish Air Corps had crashed into the sea between Gormans- town and Balbriggan. The life-boat George and Caroline Ermen was launched at four o'clock in a moderate swell with a south-easterly breeze blowing, and searched in company with a motor boat and another air- craft. They found the Seafire in twelve feet of water four hundred yards from the shore. The life-boat then noticed that the motor boat, which had a crew of three, had run short of petrol and was drifting towards the rocky shore. She towed her to Balbriggan and then returned to the Seafire. The Howth life-boat R.P.L., which was launched at 3.45, had also arrived on the scene, and both life-boats remained until two other boats had marked the position. The life-boats then returned to their station, the Clogher Head life- boat arriving at 9.25 and the Howth boat at 10.45. The pilot of the Sea- fire lost his life. The skipper of the motor boat and an officer of the Irish Air Corps expressed their thanks.— Rewards: Clogher, £15 10*.; Howth, £9 16s..