On 24 March 1968, Aer Lingus flight EI 712, en route from Cork to London Heathrow disappeared into the Irish Sea near Tuskar Rock lighthouse, just off the coast of County Wexford. All 57 passengers and four crew died. It remains the single biggest loss in the history of Irish civil aviation.

An Irish government report was published two years after the disaster. It speculated on possible causes for the crash but produced no definitive conclusions. After thirty years of rumours, speculation and conspiracy theories a new international study into the Tuskar Rock crash was commissioned and it reported in 2002. The author, Mike Reynolds, worked with the new investigation team and Tragedy at Tuskar Rock is based on his work on the report.

The book describes how the basic premise of the initial report was found to be suspect and pertinent evidence had been excluded due to conflicts of interest. The work on the final report is a detective tale of how the clues were assembled and how the mystery was unravelled by taking previously disregarded witnesses evidence into account. It also reveals a dramatic twist in the story, everything was not as it seemed..