Single-engine plane vanishes in Med storm
By Tanya Acheson : December 5th 1995
THE son of a former SDLP councillor is one of six people missing and feared dead in a Mediterranean plane crash.
Dessie Boomer, 39, a diesel mechanic, was on board the single engined plane on a 75 minute flight from Tunisia to Malta when it vanished during a violent storm.
A huge rescue operation was launched after the Piper 32 vanished in the early hours of Sunday 200 miles south west of the holiday island but no trace has been found.
Father-of-five Mr. Boomer, from Banbridge. is the son of former Belfast City councillor Cormac Boomer.
Today he said: "I do not hold out any hope. The search people are saying that they haven't given up hope but all we can hope for is that they find the bodies".
His son. whose children are aged between eight and 15 was working for a Darlington based company employed by the Tunisian government on oilfield work.
He was due to return home to Northern Ireland for Christmas. He was on board the flight from the Tunisian island of Djerba along with another Briton, a Pole and three Maltese including the pilot.
It left at 4.46am and was due at the international airport on the George Cross island at 6.30am. Last contact with the piper 32 was at 5:11am when it was 200 miles south west of Malta. The alarm was raised at 6.18am and ships from the US 6th Fleet joined with Tunisian and Maltese aircraft in a search operation.
The weather was described as as "stormy". Mr. Boomer Snr. a well-known figure in local politics. said at his home in Riverdale, west Belfast: "He had made the trip before and he told me it had been a hair-raising experience. The plane was being bounced around like a rubber ball.
Parish priest Fr Matthew O'Hare said the community was stunned to learn of Mr. Boomers disappearance.
A Maltese government spokesman said military from the US base in Sigonella, Scily, had joined the search south of Malta but no trace had been found or survivors or wreckage.
He said his son had been working in Tunisia for four months and had previously worked in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War".
"We are devasted to think that he came through 25 years living in Andersonstown and then for this to happen", added Mr. Boomer.
A close friend of the family, who live at Larchwood Court, Banbridge said, "His wife Mandy and his children are totally devasted He was a devoted father loving and worked so hard for his family".
