John Sweeney, owner of a string of hotels across Ireland and a stakeholder in Dublin's Shelbourne Hotel, told the Sunday Tribune he would have been on the Cessna flight from Inis Meain to Inverin Airport but he was out of the country on business and sent one of his managers in his place.

"I was shocked when I heard the news about the crash. I was out of the country and I would have been on that plane if I had not been away.

David Hennessy, the CEO of Sweeney Hotels, was on the plane in my place, " explained Sweeney.

"While David has serious injuries, thankfully they are not life-threatening. He was representing me on the trip and I knew everyone on the plane so I am devastated over what has happened."

The single-engine plane crashed into a field on Thursday afternoon on a return trip from Inis Meain in the Aran Islands after the plane missed the runway at Aerfort na Minna in Inverin, Connemara.

Paul McNamee (57), an accountant from Loughrea, Co Galway, and Matt Masterson (59), the pilot from Terenure, Dublin, were killed in the crash. The seven other passengers onboard the private jet were all injured, three of them seriously.

Sweeney added, "I knew the pilot, Matt Masterson, as I had flown with him before, and he was a very experienced and capable pilot. I knew Paul McNamee as well and he was a very popular man, not only in Connemara and Loughrea but all over Galway."

The men on board the plane were involved in the Clifden Airport Company, which had its longheld aim of securing an airstrip for the isolated Connemara community almost realised recently when the Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs purchased a strip of land between Clifden and Cleggan.

They are understood to have been on the Cessna aircraft, which was less than two years old, because they were interested in buying a similar plane for use at the new Clifden airstrip when it is completed.

Clifden is a town with a rich aviation history and the framed newspaper cuttings on the walls in the aptly named Alcock and Brown Hotel stand testament to that.

The walls in the town-centre hotel are adorned with US newspaper cuttings from 16 June 1919.

The front page headline on the New York Times on that day read, "Alcock and Brown fly across Atlantic: make 1,980 miles in 16 hours, 12 mins sometimes upside down in dense, heavy fog".

Alcock and Brown's record-breaking flight across the Atlantic to Connemara left an aviation legacy in Clifden and local people have campaigned for over 20 years through the Clifden Airport Company to have their own airport.

The campaign first centred on the development of an airport near the site where Alcock and Brown landed. However, a protracted battle over planning permission saw the company campaign to have an airstrip developed near Cleggan, a few miles from Clifden, instead.

Deirdre Keogh, owner of the Alcock and Brown Hotel, said, "It is devastating news as we all knew them so well. They were the leading business people in the town and this is horrific for such a small community.

"For example, Martin Acton came home from the US and set up a construction firm here a number of years ago. He is now one of the main employers in the area and he has been behind many of the developments in Clifden in the past few years.

"It could have been much worse. If they had all perished you could say Clifden's business community would have been wiped out as those men are the core business people in the town."

Local shop owner Brian Hehir said, "Hopefully the survivors will all make a full recovery. I knew Paul McNamee very well as he grew up in Roundstone and he had a holiday home near here in Ballyconneely. He was an accountant and he looked after the accounts for a lot of business people in Clifden."

Clifden hoteliers Brian Hughes, Kevin Barry and his son Kevin jnr, Loughrea businessman Eugene Houlihan, Clifden developer Martin Acton, Alan Smith from Swords, Co Dublin, and David Hennessy of the Sweeney Hotel Group were all on board the ill-fated flight.

The AGM of the Clifden Airport Company was due to take place on Thursday evening.

Two local men, JJ Mannion, a local solicitor, and Paul Hughes, a local hotelier, had got an earlier flight back in order to make preparations for the AGM.

Publican, David Griffin snr, said, "I had a drink with Paul McNamee a fortnight ago and I am shocked that he is gone. He was a complete gentleman and everyone in Clifden would say that.

"It was very unfortunate what happened. I am after hearing that all of the injured are going to survive so hopefully they will be okay."

Further tests are due to be carried out this week on the wreckage of the plane which was transferred under garda escort to a special facility in Gormanstown, Co Meath on Friday night.

Members of the Department of Transport Air Accident Investigation Unit completed their initial examination of the wreckage at the crash scene on Friday and the preliminary air accident report into the crash is expected with 30 days.

Eamon King, who has been involved in the Clifden Airport Company since its inception over "20 long years ago" said: "All of the locals on the plane were key people in campaigning to get the airstrip and they were looking at planes with a view to buying one.

"Thankfully they are now off the critical list and hopefully they will make a full recovery.

They have the support of the whole community and it is a miracle that more lives were not lost."