R116 family gives cash to charity
THE wife of Captain Mark Duffy, who lost his life when Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 crashed off the Co Mayo coast, has donated funds raised to support her family to a children’s charity.
Mother-of-two Hermione Duffy lost her 51-year-old husband who was the co-pilot of the helicopter. The crash also claimed the lives of his three colleagues, Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith, in March last year.
Members of Dublin Airport Police and Fire Service completed a memorial cycle in remembrance of the crew of Rescue 116.
Ms Duffy took to her official Facebook page, posting: “Last year the Rescue 116 cycle rode 116km around Dublin Airport organised by the Airport Police and Fire Service. The funds raised were divided in four and given to each family.”
Ms Duffy said the family decided to give their share to charity – €2,260 was given to the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (ISPCC) as it was a charity she has fundraised for before.
“Mark will know it’s my charity of choice,” she said.
Capt Duffy, from Blackrock, Co Louth, was a rescue pilot since 2001 and described it as a “dream job”. He was quoted as saying: “When you make a difference, there is no better feeling like that... it’s priceless.”
Rescue 116 hit rocks on the western end of Blackrock Island as it returned from supporting a rescue mission of an injured trawlerman. The wreckage of the doomed Coast Guard helicopter was brought ashore after it crashed into the Atlantic close to the island. The black box was also located.
The Air Accident Investigation Unit established the Sikorsky S-92’s internal warning system did not include the rocky Atlantic outcrop and its working lighthouse in its database.