On Tuesday, 13 February 2001, at about 6pm, a call was made to the emergency services to report the crash of a small aircraft on Benaughlin Mountain, near Kinawley in County Fermanagh. Soon, police officers and soldiers were deployed in the area, while a helicopter fitted with heat-seeking equipment searched from the air. However, nothing was found, and the police were able to establish that all local aircraft were accounted for. The search was called off at 10pm. The general consensus amongst the emergency services was that the call had been a hoax. But other's came forward: people, from both sides of the border, who believed they had seen a plane crash. "I saw a dot at the front and a trail of smoke leading down an angle towards, the mountain. I know what I saw," said one witness in Kinawley. And a garda officer in County Cavan said: "A couple has reported seeing something burning in the sky, travelling south in the direction of Kinawley on Tuesday night." There was also a report