Robert Briscoe, who served as lord mayor of Dublin from 1956 to 1957 and from 1961 to 1962, was son of Lithuanian a Jewish immigrants to Ireland.

In contrast, the current immigration is of majority Catholic Lithuanians, as Lithuania contained few Jews in 2000.

Vaitkus had to fight the worst possible weather conditions and was helped considerably by hourly broadcasts from an Irish radio station.

He knew that he could not make it to Kaunas due to his low fuel supply, and being exhausted after a 23-hour struggle fighting the elements, he felt it was best to come down somewhere in Ireland.

He spotted an open field in Cloongowla at Ballinrobe, County Mayo and came down, with the aircraft suffering extensive damage.