CARGO PLANE MYSTERY DEEPENS

Michael Fisher

Questions remain over a mystery flight just before Christmas by a noisy Ukrainian registered cargo plane that passed over north Monaghan late at night. Since my appeal for further information, three people have been in contact in the past week about the aircraft, an Antonov AN12 call sign UR-CAJ that was built fifty years ago in the Soviet Union.

One person reported hearing something a week ago (Thursday 3rd January) in the Magheracloone area of south Monaghan near Carrickmacross in the afternoon, between 3pm and 4pm. He explained: “I was tidying up the garden when I heard the sound of a very noisy aircraft and after a number of seconds a plane very similar to the one pictured in The Northern Standard flew overhead. I’m not exaggerating when I say it was no more than three to four times the height of the trees around me and it crossed the sky from north to south fairly slowly. I checked…