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www.celtic-connection.com
JUNE 2009
Tributes flow in for tragic young Irish doctors
DUBLIN - The families of the three young doctors who were aboard Air France flight AF 477 expressed shock and sadness on June 2 at the sudden deaths of their loved ones.
The family of Dr. Fithne Walls from Co. Down said they confirmed the tragic loss of their sister and daughter "with the heaviest and saddest of hearts."
Dr. Walls was a member of the Riverdance troupe and performed on Broadway before beginning six years of medical studies at Trinity College Dublin. While studying, she continued dancing as part of Riverdance's "flying squad," performing in China, Qatar, Germany and France.
"Fithne was an extraordinary person who brought light to the lives of everyone she touched," a statement from her father, Raymond, mother Mary, brothers Raymond junior and Gerard and sister Kathryn, said.
"She was beautiful in every way, especially of spirit. She had a passion for life that permeated, enlivened and enriched those around her. We feel privileged to have shared her too short life, and the countless memories of her will stay with us forever."
The Walls family also said they were overwhelmed by the messages of support they had received from those in their community in
Ballyogan and throughout the world. They said the thoughts and prayers gave comfort "at this most devastating of times." They called Irish dancing a passion she continued throughout her studies and into her professional life.
Dr. Aisling Butler from Roscrea in Co. Tipperary was described as "a caring and kind devoted daughter and sister" by her family.
"Aisling was very talented and a high achiever with a very promising career," a statement issued through a family solicitor said. "She was also full of fun, caring and kind, a devoted daughter and sister," it added.
The family said they "are merely trying to come to terms with this shocking news."
Dr. Butler's father said that she had turned 26 just over two weeks ago. When he heard about the missing plane, he initially thought Aisling's flight was due in the following day but decided to check the travel details in his e-mails. "When I opened it up, a nightmare opened up as well," he said.
Her heartbroken father said "we know Aisling is gone, we are sure of that." He said he couldn't describe his family's grief. "It is just about trying to live now, I have to live for my wife and my only other daughter, Lorna."
Her devastated mother Evelyn said that the family's deepest wish is that her body would be found.
The family of Dr. Jane Deasy declined to comment.
Tribute to Scot on missing plane
GLASGOW - The wife of a man who was on board the Air France plane that disappeared over the Atlantic has paid tribute to her "loving, caring" husband.
Joyce Gardner, 51, from Gourock, said her 52-year-old husband, Graham, would "be missed, dearly."
He worked as a ship's master for Aberdeen-based Sub Sea 7. He was among the 228 people on the Airbus A330.
The flight left Brazil's Rio de Janeiro for Paris on the evening of May 31. It is believed to have flown into a storm.
Air France officials have said the plane encountered turbulence about four hours into the flight. It then sent an automatic signal indicating an electrical fault.
In a statement, Joyce Gardner said, "I have known Graham for as long as I can remember. He's such a loving, caring and laid back man. Nothing fazed him. Graham was very supportive and always there for me when I needed him.
"Although we don't have children, he was very much a family man and loved playing with all the children in our extended family. He was just a big kid at heart.
"I'm sure I can speak for everyone that knew him - whether family, friend or colleague - in saying that he will be missed, dearly."
Gardner studied at Glasgow College of Nautical Studies and later graduated as a Master Mariner. He had been in the Merchant Navy all his adult life and served on vessels ranging from ferries and tankers to container ships.
For the past four years he had been based in Brazil on a month-on, month-off contract. Earlier this year he was promoted to Master of pipe-laying vessel, The Lochnagar.
Gardner is also survived by his mother, Sarah.
Aberdeen-based company director, Arthur Coakley, 61, was also on board the Air France flight. He had worked in the oil and gas industry for 14 years.
Search for wreckage after France flight vanishes
PARIS - Investigators scoured the Atlantic for wreckage after an Air France airliner plunged into the ocean during a violent storm on June 1. All 228 people aboard are believed to have died.
The only clue to the disappearance of the Airbus 330, which was on a night flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, was an automated transmission from the aircraft reporting sudden electrical and cabin pressure failures.
Five Britons were on board, with 61 French, 58 Brazilians and 26 Germans among the 33 nationalities represented. One of the British victims, a woman from Wales, was travelling with three Irish women, who were doctors.
They were named as Aisling Butler, of Roscrea, Co. Tipperary, Jane Deasy of Dublin and Eithne Walls, originally from Belfast.
French ministers initially ruled out sabotage or hijacking and said that Air France's worst disaster had probably been caused by lightning, but that it was too early to draw conclusions.
Air France said that Flight 447, with a crew of 12, vanished after flying into a line of severe tropical storms at about 2 AM GMT.
Among the missing was the Latin American chief of the Michelin tyre group. The airline said that the area of the likely crash had been narrowed down to a few dozen square miles midway between Brazil and northwest Africa.
Pierre-Henri Gourgeon, the airline's chief executive, said that the jet's automated link had sent out a "succession of a dozen technical messages . . . indicating that several systems had broken down . . . indicating a completely unheard-of situation."
The Airbus is equipped with locator beacons that should transmit over a narrow range from under water.
The pilots made their last position report after leaving the coast of Brazil at 1:30 AM. The aircraft was flying normally at 35,000 feet (10,600 metres).
Since there is no radar cover over the ocean, the crew, which included a senior captain with 11,000 flying
FRIENDS and family gathered at Charles de Gaulle International Aiport in Paris to await news of the fate of their loved ones after the Air France flight from Rio de Janeiro disappeared. "It is a catastrophe, the likes ofwhich Air France has neverseen," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after meeting grieving relatives at the airport's emergency crisis centre.
THE AIR FRANCE airbus 330 plunged into the Atlantic Ocean after encountering a violent storm on June 1.
hours, had been due to check in with the next oceanic control at 2 AM. Air France said that it entered "a thunderous zone with strong turbulence" at that time.
The last communication was the data link message at 2:15 AM reporting a failure of electrical power, pressurisation and other systems.
This suggested that the aircraft was already out of control and possibly breaking up.
Airline pilots speculated that the airliner could have flown into one of the powerful, towering storm cells that are strong enough to turn a big aircraft on its back and that are usually avoided.
The area was something of a graveyard for European and South American aircraft in the pioneering days of air transport in the 1930s.
Airbus A330 airliners have never before had a fatal crash during a commercial flight.
Introduced a decade ago, they are respected workhorses. However, the crash is bound to renew suspicions among some airline pilots about the highly automated systems that run the Airbus family.
JOYCE AND GRAHAM Gardner on their wedding day in 2001.
Irish Student's Wikipedia hoax quote used worldwide
DUBLIN - A Wikipedia hoax by Dublin student Shane Fitzgerald (22) resulted in a fake quote being published in worldwide newspaper obituaries.
The quote, attributed to French composer Maurice Jarre who died at the end of March, was posted on the online encyclopaedia shortly after his death and later appeared in obituaries published in the Guardian, Hie London Independent, on the BBC Music Magazine website and in Indian and Australian newspapers.
"One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head, that only I can hear," Jarre was quoted as saying.
However, the quote was written by the UCD student as an experiment to show how journalists use the Internet as a primary source and how people are connected through the Internet.
Fitzgerald said he was shocked by the result of his experiment and, while he expected it to appear in blogs and websites, he never expected mainstream newspapers to use it.
The hoax only came to light when Fitzgerald contacted the newspapers to let them know they had published an inaccurate quote.