Council calls for end to military flights

The helicopter crashed on the side of a hill

Newry and Mourne District Council has passed a motion calling for the immediate cessation of all military flight in south Armagh.

Both the SDLP and Sinn Fein supported the motion which was passed at a meeting in Newry on Tuesday.

The move follows an accident near Jonesborough in which a Puma helicopter crash near a hilltop army base last weekend.

The council meeting heard concerns that it was only a matter of time before such an accident would lead to fatalities on the ground.

The south Armagh community are not prepared any longer to tolerate this unnecessary and uncalled for British military activity

Pat McGinn Sinn Fein

Sinn Fein councillor Pat McGinn said local people had "had enough".

"It is a clear indication that the south Armagh community are not prepared any longer to tolerate this unnecessary and uncalled for British military activity."

Five soldiers and two civilians were injured, two of them seriously, when the helicopter was forced to land on the side of a hill at Slieve Gullion.

Two people are still seriously ill in hospital.

There had been three crew members and six passengers on board.

A team of investigators have searched the wreckage and the surrounding area.

The helicopter, based at RAF Aldergrove in County Antrim, had been on a routine flight between security force bases in south Armagh.