Plane crash in Galway

A family escaped a Christmas Eve plane crash in Tipperary after their light aircraft fell 9,000 feet out of the sky and into a farmer's field.
The single engine light aircraft, carrying the pilot, his wife, their two young children, and the family dog, suddenly got into difficulty as it travelled to Galway from Havensford West in England.
Farmer Tim Reddan, who was feeding his livestock at Mill Farm, Lorrah, Co Tipperary, couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the family emerge unscathed from the wreckage.
In true Christmas spirit Mr Reddan brought the shocked family inside his house for tea and also helped the pilot and his wife hide their children's Christmas presents inside as they waited for relatives to drive them onto Galway where they are spending Christmas and the New Year.
Praising the pilot for his cool emergency decent, Mr Reddan said: "The pilot told me he had 90 seconds to make up his mind where he was going to land… The plane was falling at 9,000 feet per minute."
However, the experienced pilot, whose identity remains a mystery, had factored in an emergency plan should anything go wrong on the flight.
"He was a great man, a brave man. He had everything planned. He had left nothing to chance. He had the whole route marked and even knew where the electric wires were so he was able to land the plane uphill to slow it down," said Mr Reddan.
The Tipperary farmer said, even though the plane landed around 200 metres from where he was feeding cattle, he was the last to come across the scene as the noise of his machinery drowned out the thunder from the falling plane.
"I never heard a thing. There were people from four miles away at the scene before I heard about it," Mr Reddan laughed.
After providing the air travellers with some refreshments on the ground, Mr Reddan waved them off as they made the final leg of their journey by road.
"They were freezing and fairly shook. It was a terrifying experience for them. The woman’s brother came and collected her and the children at teatime and they were all right at that stage. The pilot had to stay because the scene had to be preserved," he added.
The accident is being investigated by the Air Accident Unit of the Irish Aviation Authority.
According to a spokesperson for the Irish Coast Guard, the Valentia Coast Guard tasked the Shannon-based Rescue Helicopter 115 to a light aircraft "on fire which was ditching on land". The plane landed safely before Rescue 115 reached the scene.
Mr Reddan said it was a Christmas Eve they would never forget.