R116 navigation data ‘corrupted’
CAPTAIN Evan Cullen, president of the Irish Air Line Pilots’ Association has said that the navigation databases on board the coastguard Rescue Helicopter 116 were inaccurate.
Speaking to Gavin Jennings on RTÉ Radio One’s Morning Ireland yesterday, Captain Cullen said that he had observed the databases that were provided for
‘There is a lot more to this’
the R116 crew and parts of them were corrupted. ‘There is a lot more to this, more and more information will emerge,’ he said.
According to the aviation expert, parts of the databases do not properly show the position of Blackrock Island, Co Mayo, where Rescue 116 went down on March 14.
Captain Cullen also said that the final minutes of the voice recorder in the cockpit need not have been published as much of the recording was not technically relevant.
However, last Friday, the Air Accident Investigation Unit of Ireland published a preliminary report stating that the section of transcript released was deemed ‘very relevant to the AAIU in order to give the the families, aviation regulators, operators and the many S92 pilots around the world a better understanding of the sequence of events that occurred on that tragic day.’
During the interview, Captain Cullen said that the AAIU could have met all of their objectives and completed the report without publishing every detail of the transcript, including the crew’s last words.
Captain Cullen continued: ‘From the outset, we have to look at the history of accident investigation and the international rules and procedures.
‘‘It is our conclusion and the conclusion of many experts around the world who specialise in this area of aviation that the entire two-minute recording was not needed for the completion of the preliminary report.’
Captain Dara Fitzpatrick was recovered from the accident but died shortly afterwards in hospital. Captain Mark Duffy’s body was found in the wreckage and crew members Ciarán Smith and Paul Ormsby are still missing.