The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Narrow timescale for search
Rescue: Hunt for copter and crew will focus on three-hour window
A massive search for three rescuers missing after an Irish Coast Guard helicopter crashed into the Atlantic is focusing on a “three-hour window” to find the aircraft amid fierce weather conditions.
Organisers hope a critically timed operation between low tides tomorrow will lead them to the Sikorsky S92 and the bodies of three men who have not been found since the helicopter disappeared without warning off Co Mayo early on Tuesday morning.
The search has been narrowed to a 100 metre by 80 metre section of the ocean around Blackrock lighthouse, about 13km offshore from Blacksod, where the aircraft was intended to land to refuel moments before it vanished.
The detection of a black box signal in that area has buoyed hopes that the bulk of the wreckage can be found along with the three remaining crew members.
Declan Geoghegan, of the Irish Coast Guard, said the likelihood is that the black box recorder is still attached to the helicopter and it was also more likely than not that the missing crew members are still inside.
“If you look at helicopter crashes, 92 or 93% of the time the bodies are found within the wreckage of the fuselage, it is so small,” he said.
“The other thing is that they are either strapped in or tethered – one or the other.”
Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, 45, the only one of the crew to be recovered so far, was found critically ill in the water on Tuesday and later confirmed dead.
The highly-experienced and ground-breaking pilot,
“92 or 93% of the time bodies are found within the wreckage”
well known to Irish television audiences for her role in a fly-on-the-wall documentary about the Coast Guard, was the mother of a three-year-old son.
The other three crew, who have yet to be found, are chief pilot Mark Duffy fromDundalk, CoLouth, as well as Ciaran Smith and Paul Ormsby, both winchmen from nor t h Co Dublin.
It is hoped if tomorrow’s tightly-managed operation to locate the helicopter is successful, then a “bigger window” will be available on Monday during which divers or remotely operated underwater vehicles will be deployed to the wreckage.