Air crash investigators confirm type of microlight plane involved in double fatal crash in Northern Ireland

By Adam Kula
Published 22nd Jul 2022, 14:57 BST
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The Air Accident Investigation Branch have confirmed that the aircraft involved in Tuesday’s double fatal plane crash in Northern Ireland was an Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen.

The Air Accident Investigation Branch have confirmed that the aircraft involved in Tuesday’s double fatal plane crash in Northern Ireland was an Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen.

This appears to be a relatively new type of plane and some details (including this video) are on the www.foxbataircraft.com website.

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The specs the site gives for the A32 is that it can hold one pilot and one passenger (apparently side-by-side), has a top speed of 125kts (144mph) and stalls at speeds lower than 27 kts (31mph).

General image of an Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen, picture by Yuriy Novostavskyy (creative commons BY-SA 4.0 licence)General image of an Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen, picture by Yuriy Novostavskyy (creative commons BY-SA 4.0 licence)
General image of an Aeroprakt A32 Vixxen, picture by Yuriy Novostavskyy (creative commons BY-SA 4.0 licence)

It can climb 750ft per minute, and can stay in the air a maximum of 10 hours.

There is only one other mention of such an aircraft in the AAIB’s accident archives; a minor incident last year in Lancashire where a plane’s engine was starved of fuel and had to make a rough landing (there were no injuries).

The crash on Tuesday at Newtownards airfield killed Philip Murdock and Caroline Mawhinney.

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There is as yet no indication of what may have caused the crash.

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Related topics:Northern IrelandA32