‘Why were rescuers out in those conditions?’

Lethal ‘backwash’ wave might have led to Coast Guard boat flipping over

A LETHAL wave sequence known to happen along rocky Atlantic coastlines may have contributed to the death of Coast Guard volunteer Caitriona Lucas, rescue service sources say.

The combination of a ‘backwash’, where a wave strikes the rocky shore and then bounces back causing a downward pull, may have tipped the boat’s bow downwards. And, sources say, this could have been compounded by a following wave hitting the boat’s upturned stern and flipping it over.

“By the looks of it, they were nosing into that inlet looking for the body and the rib (rigid inflatable boat) could have had its nose pulled down in a backwash. If the stern was up, and another wave came in behind, it would flip that boat up easily,” a source, who asked not to be named, said. “If they were side on, which could have been the case, it could have been even easier for that to happen.”

At the time of the incident on Monday, the mother-of-two and fellow volunteers Jenny Carway and James Lucey were searching for a local schoolteacher who had gone missing off the Cliffs of Moher last Friday week.

There was some unhappiness among emergency service professionals about the incident, with one saying: “They should not have been out in those conditions looking for a body. That boat was unsuitable and could be prone to overturning if it was close inshore.”

Ms Lucas (41) was a volunteer with the local community rescue boat in Kilkee which is under the control of the Irish Coast Guard Service, which has been increasing its volunteer membership and opened bases around the coastline over the past 10 years.

This expansion has led to tensions between the Coast Guard and the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), which has registered a number of incidents in recent years in which they felt the Coast Guard was failing to alert it appropriately in a number of emergencies.

The RNLI crews use modern rescue vessels that are nearly unsinkable as well as inshore ribs of a similar design to the Delta rib which sank on Monday.

The Coast Guard has authority over the helicopter rescue service and, increasingly, the volunteer inshore craft around Ireland as well as a large fleet of 4x4 vehicles that, sources say, are generally used to observe RNLI rescues. Several RNLI members last week said they did not wish to comment on the tragedy.

One, however, who did speak, said: “Those people shouldn’t have been out, particularly not when you think they weren’t trying to rescue anybody, just looking for a body. We all feel very sorry for Caitriona and her family, but we feel their lives were put at risk unnecessarily.

“We do a lot of searches for suicides and that man they were looking for was probably underwater and could be anywhere. There was no need to risk lives for that.”

The Health and Safety Authority (HSA) and The Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) are both to carry out an investigation.

Dozens of people were watching from cliffs and the shore around Doolin when the accident happened and their accounts and ‘black box’ data will be reviewed.

‘We feel that the volunteers’ lives were put at risk unnecessarily’