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Rescue 116 recovery effort to resume on Sunday

Sea swell halts attempts to retrieve body in wreckage of the Coast Guard helicopter

about 11 hours ago Updated: 40 minutes ago

Lorna Siggins Marine Correspondent, in Blacksod

Gardaí and members of the Irish Coast Guard alongside the Quay at Blacksod, Co Mayo. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Gardaí and members of the Irish Coast Guard alongside the Quay at Blacksod, Co Mayo. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

Coast Guard helicopter conducts visual searches along the coastline around Blacksod. Photograph: Colin Keegan/Collins

Sea swell off the north Co Mayo coast halted efforts on Saturday to recover the body of one of the crew members of the Irish Coast Guard Rescue 116 helicopter.

The helicopter crashed on an approach to Blacksod Pier in the early hours of March 14th.

The crew member’s body had been located in the cockpit of the aircraft wreckage by Naval divers on Friday, but could not be recovered due to rising swell.

The body has not been positively identified.

“No dive will take place today due to the sea swell, but it is hoped that dives can take place tomorrow,”Insp Gary Walsh, of the Mayo Garda division, said at Blacksod Pier on Saturday evening.

However, Mr Walsh confirmed that the Marine Institute’s remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) was deployed at several stages on Saturday on the aircraft wreckage.

Search teams have not been able to confirm if the remains of the other two missing airmen are in the general location of the main fuselage, which is lying in 40m of water in a channel subject to strong tides and sea surges.

Senior pilot Capt Dara Fitzpatrick is the only one of the four crew members whose remains have been recovered after the crash off Blackhouse Island, 13km west of the Mullet Peninsula.

Capt Mark Duffy and winch team members Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith were also on board the helicopter at the time of the crash.

The aircraft’s “black box” was also recovered on Friday. It may yield vital clues as to the cause of the crash.

The combined flight recorder has been flown to the British Air Accident Investigation Branch for analysis as part of the official inquiry.

Unsafe

In spite of calm weather ashore and light winds at sea on Saturday, a ground swell in the Atlantic made diving unsafe around Blackrock Island.

“The ROV has been doing most of the work today,” Mr Walsh said.

He said Supt Tony Healy and the relevant “command personnel” from the various agencies involved in the effort met on board the Granuaile on Saturday evening to assess the best approach and see what work the ROV could do until nightfall to free the body in the cockpit.

Conditions were being “assessed all the time” he said, but there was a 3m-swell near the island which made diving unsafe at present.

On scene co-ordination is being provided by the Naval Service patrol ship the LÉ Samuel Beckett.

The Naval Service diving team would continue to focus on the wreckage when swell settled sufficiently, and the Garda divers hoped to conduct a “wider sweep” in the search for the other two men, Mr Walsh said.

Air and surface searches were extended on Saturday towards Downpatrick Head and Donegal Bay, while the Irish Coast Guard helicopters from Shannon and Sligo combed the coastline.

RNLI Achill and Ballyglass lifeboats were at sea since early on Saturday morning, while Irish Coast Guard and Civil Defence units equipped with drones and volunteers walked areas of the shoreline.

Some “small” pieces of debris had been collected on the coastline between Blacksod and Annagh Head to the north, but nothing south of Achill Head, he said.