WAS R116 TRYING TO LAND AT A LIGHTHOUSE?
A FAILED emergency landing following a disastrous fault in the helicopter may have caused the downing of Rescue 116.
The search for the remaining debris and black box from the Coast Guard helicopter is being focused within a 100metre distance from Black Rock off Co. Mayo.
A lighthouse and small helicopter pad is located on the 80metre tall rock around 20km off shore.
One theory being investigated is that a calamitous fault in the aircraft forced Rescue 116’s pilot to attempt an emergency landing on the rock, which was unsuccessful and lead to a crash.
It was confirmed yesterday that debris had been found there.
However, last night Jurgen Whyte, chief aeronautical officer of the Air Accident Investigation Unit told RTÉ’s Prime Time that there were no impact marks on the lighthouse itself and no large impact marks on the rocks.
Chief Pilot Mark Duffy and winchmen Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith are still missing.
The waters surrounding the rock have been described as extremely difficult to traverse and prone to large swell. Turbulent weather conditions severely hindered the search operation yesterday.
The swell in the area of focus was as high as six metres during the day. It had been hoped that diving teams from the Gardaí and the naval services would enter the waters yesterday but dives were unable to go ahead.
The Air Corps successfully landed a crew from the air accident investigations unit onto Black Rock to carry out a search yesterday afternoon.
The now deceased brother of Maureen Ruadhin, the founder of the local heritage centre in the area, was the lighthouse attendant at Black Rock for 30 years. Yesterday she described the rock as ‘treacherous’.
‘There are always precautions taken with Black Rock because it is one of the most treacherous rocks to relieve and in bygone days… it was so treacherous you couldn’t get a boat into it.’
She explained: ‘It’s very small, there’s no land on Black Rock.
‘It’s all rocky, it’s not level. There’s not a level patch.’
A signal from the black box of the helicopter was detected metres from Black Rock at around 4pm on Wednesday. Search teams are attempting to pinpoint the precise location of the homing beacon which is submerged at a depth of around 40metres.
It is hoped that the black box is attached to the remaining wreckage from the aircraft and that the three missing crew members are with the wreckage.
A marine institute vessel known as the Granuaile was due to join the search at around 5am today.
The vessel has a crane capable of lifting heavy wreckage. It also contains a large platform to facilitate diving. The vessel is adept at operating in an area of a large swell such as that found near Black Rock. The vessel will conduct subsurface sonar scans once the conditions allow.
In a major setback to the search mission due to poor weather conditions, diving may not be possible until Sunday.
‘The weather window we’ve established we’re going to go straight in with an ROV [remotely operated vehicle] or a naval dive team once we’ve established where the box is; that the wreckage is there and hopefully that our colleagues are with that wreckage,’ Declan Geoghegan coastguard spokesman said yesterday.
He said the team have identified a weather window of three to four hours on Sunday or potentially Saturday in which diving would be permissible.
Teams are on stand-by to enter the area once the weather permits: ‘Once the weather window comes up. Supposing it’s six o’clock in the morning, we’d be ready to go,’ Mr Geoghegan said.
An aviation specialist and former RAF pilot expressed serious concern yesterday over the crash.
Jim Morris said: ‘The loss of a modern twin engine Coast Guard helicopter in Ireland that was being flown by a very experienced crew is extremely concerning. It is very early days but the reports indicate that it was on a routine final approach to refuel in good conditions when contact was lost – a catastrophic loss in this phase of flight is shocking.’
He added: ‘There are also reports indicating that there must have been a catastrophic failure as it only takes two seconds to press the mayday button, yet the crew did not do this.’
Three drones were delivered to the search team by the Civil Defence unit yesterday. They will join the search once weather conditions allow.
Kevin Houston, technical officer for the Civil Defence explained that the drones can be flown to a
No large marks on the rocks ‘Drones would give a clear vision’
500metres distance horizontally. ‘They’re not for long distance out of sea,’ he said.
However, Mr Houston said the drones have been an asset to previous searches. ‘They don’t replace people searching but they search areas that are dangerous to put volunteers into. Cliffs, crevices, rocky outcrops, swampy areas – ideal to send a drone over which would give you a clear vision both video and stills.’
As a mark of respect, Mayo County Council have said the Mayo civil defences are being withdrawn from the St Patrick’s Day parade today.