‘Confusion’ hinders search and rescue ops, says report
A REVIEW of the country’s search and rescue aviation operations has identified several sources of confusion among agencies which oversee rescue operations.
The review has also found ‘several potential conflicts of interest,’ according to RTÉ, which have ‘resulted in a lack of shared understanding of roles and responsibilities’ among the various agencies.’
The report recommends that the Department of Transport assign responsibility for the ‘legal and safety oversight’ of civil aviation search and rescue activities to the Irish Aviation Authority and provide it with the required resources.
The Department of Transport was unavailable for comment last night, but departmental sources said that despite the recommendations, it would be ‘very unlikely’ that the IAA would be able to assume this new role ‘any time soon’.
The review was initiated after the Air Accident Investigation Unit Ireland (AAIU) Interim Statement into the Rescue 116 crash on March 14, 2017, which killed two crew members and left two missing.
It was published last March. One of the AAIU’s interim safety recommendations was that the Minister for Transport should carry out a thorough review of search and rescue aviation operations in Ireland.
This was, it said, ‘to ensure there are appropriate processes, resources and personnel in place to provide effective, continuous, comprehensive and independent oversight of all aspects of these operations’.
On the issue of oversight of search and rescue operations in Ireland it said ‘greater clarity regarding the individual and collective responsibilities for oversight of all aspects of search and rescue aviation operations in Ireland is required’.
However, it noted: ‘The IAA has established a mechanism to carry out safety oversight of the search and rescue services under its responsibility.
‘However, the Department of Transport has not established a mechanism to ensure that effective safety oversight is being carried out for those entities for which it is responsible.’
The remains of captains Dara Fitzpatrick, 45, and Mark Duffy, 51, were discovered in the immediate aftermath of the crash, but no trace has ever been found of the remaining two missing crew members, Ciarán Smith, 38, and Paul Ormsby, 53.
In July 2017, it emerged that the Rescue 116 disaster could have been averted if warnings about Coast Guard flight data had been heeded.
A Coast Guard pilot had flagged the absence of Black Rock island, from the on-board warning system five years ago – but the issue was not addressed, according to an RTÉ Prime Time investigation.
A preliminary investigation into the crash found that Captain Fitzpatrick pitched the helicopter ‘nose up’ to try to avoid smashing into the island off the Mayo coast.
It later emerged that the on-board warning system did not have any data locating Black Rock.