A businessman who landed his helicopter on a roof in Irishtown in July last year just to collect a set of keys had his case adjourned until November 24 at the District Court last Tuesday.
Sean O'Brien (49 ), with an address given as The Island, Ballycumber, Co Offaly was before Judge William Earley to face 10 summonses from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA ) on foot of his “negligent and reckless” behaviour on the date in question.
It is believed O’Brien and his brother landed the single-engine Hughes 369HS helicopter on the roof of the Texas Centre in St Mary's Place in order to collect a set of newly cut door keys for the machine.
O’Brien was summonsed for operating a helicopter in a “negligent or reckless manner so as to endanger life or property in a manner that was hazardous to person and property”.
An Air Accident Investigation Report compiled earlier this year by the IAA found that the pilot showed “poor airmanship”.
“It is unclear to the investigation where the helicopter could have been safely force-landed in the event of an engine failure during landing or take-off,” continued the report.
“It is also probable that the approach was made over the unstressed roof of the shopping centre due to the location of the church [St Mary’s] to the north of the landing site,” the report added.
Acccording to Mr Paddy Judge, the primary Air Accident Investigator on this case, the shopping centre should have been “completely avoided” for “obvious safety reasons”.
A car park attendant who attempted to wave the helicopter away as it approached for landing was slightly injured by the helicopter's main rotor downwash as it continued its illegal descent.
“He stated that the helicopter had landed on the roof some months previously and his supervisor told him afterwards that this was not allowed. That was why he had tried to wave it away,” said the report.
O’Brien, however, claimed the attendant was not on the roof while he was landing and only approached the helicopter on engine shutdown.
The duty manager of the Texas Department Store stated that he had given the pilot permission to land but was unaware at the time that he did not have the authority to do so.
'The person, whom he [O’Brien] had obtained permission from, did not have the authority to issue it as he neither controlled nor owned the car park,” it stated in the report.
“This resulted in the pilot, inadvertently, not having permission to land”.
Mr O'Brien earned his licence to fly in the United States in March 2007.
