Family of Eithne Walls' safety hopes for Air France crash report

The sister of a County Down doctor killed in a plane crash has said she hopes the final report into the disaster will help improve air safety.

Doctor Eithne Walls was among 220 people who died when an Air France jet from Rio de Janeiro to Paris crashed into the Atlantic on 1 June 2009.

The 28-year-old from Ballygwoan was a talented Irish dancer who spent a year with Riverdance on Broadway, New York.

Her sister Kathryn Walls said it was hard to know what the report would say.

Speaking on the eve of the third anniversary of the disaster, her sister gave her first Northern Ireland interview as the family awaits the official report on the crash.

"All I really hope is that the report contains some recommendations that will ultimately result in air travel being safer," she said.

I think we can only remember her as possibly one of the most exceptional and inspirational people we will ever meet”

Eithne, whose body was never recovered, died alongside her two friends and fellow doctors, Aisling Butler and Jane Deasy.

The three women had graduated in medicine from Trinity College Dublin in 2007 and were returning from holiday.

Kathryn said her sister was "without a doubt one of the most extraordinary people you could have ever met".

"She was warm, generous, kind. She was also extremely talented and very academically gifted," she said.

"She was training to be an opthamologist, and I think she was going to excel and be a truly gifted doctor."

Kathryn said it had been a difficult year for her family.

"The accident had a devastating effect on my family, on Eithne's friends and her colleagues," she said.

"What keeps us going is the support we get from all of those people, the prayers of all of our friends and families and the memories of Eithne we will always have. Walls family's crash report hope

"I think we can only remember her as possibly one of the most exceptional and inspirational people we will ever meet."