Tributes to boy (7) who died following tragic plane crash in Republic
TRIBUTES have been paid to the seven-year-old boy who died in a tragic plane crash along with the pilot in Co Offaly.
The little boy has been named locally as Kacper Kacprzak, a pupil at Sacred Heart of Jesus school in Blanchardstown.
He was killed alongside UK pilot Niall Bowditch when their plane nose-dived into a forest near Clonbullogue, at about 2.30pm on Sunday.
Kacper’s father Kris is a regular parachutist and instructor with the Irish Parachute Club and jumped from the plane shortly before it “torpedoed” to the ground. Their family is Polish and lived in the Huntstown area of Dublin 15.
The bodies of Kacper and Mr Bowditch were recovered from the wreckage in isolated bogland just before darkness fell at about 10pm on Sunday. It’s understood that the family of Mr Bowditch are to travel from the UK to formally identify the body.
The tragic news of the death of little Kacper came to his priHuntstown
mary school yesterday, with staff too grief-stricken to pay their respects.
Local residents expressed their disbelief that such a young child from their community was killed.
“I just can’t believe it,” said Caroline Anderson. “As a mother myself I can only imagine what this poor boy’s parents are going through. All I can do is offer my sincerest condolences.
“I’ve no doubt the people living in this estate will do everything they can to help this family cope.”
A Polish woman living in
Wood was brought to tears upon hearing the news.
“To hear in detail what happened to everyone involved is extremely upsetting,” she said.
The aircraft was scheduled to land at Clonbullogue airfield, but lost contact at around 2pm.
At this stage there is nothing to suggest the pilot attempted to contact control or send out a distress signal when the aircraft got into difficulty.
Air crash investigators were last night continuing to examine the wreckage of the Cessna Caravan plane.