I still visit R116 crash site..i feel them there
Pilot’s devastated widow gets comfort from Belmullet visits
THE widow of Rescue 116 pilot Mark Duffy told yesterday how she still visits the spot in Co Mayo close to where he was killed.
Hermione Duffy said she finds comfort in Belmullet, where the rescue operation was based after the Coast Guard helicopter crash in March 2017.
She told RTE’S Brendan O’connor: “There’s a little bit of heaven in Belmullet for me and it’s Mark and his crew.
“That’s where I feel that they are – their presence is there, it’s a comfort.”
Captain Duffy died in the crash off the Mayo coast along with co-pilot Dara Fitzpatrick, winch operator Paul Ormsby and winch man Ciaran Smith.
The bodies of both pilots were recovered in the days following the tragedy but the remains of their colleagues remain lost at sea. Ms Duffy said the local community had offered huge support in 2017 and extended a warm welcome to her family to this day. She said: “All of this love helps with the trauma.”
Recalling her life with her husband she said: “All he ever wanted was to be a pilot, and it was the perfect job for him. Mark was a wonderful father to our children – Esme and Fionn – and really cherished them, particularly because his own father had died when he was 14.” Ms Duffy poignantly revealed that she and her husband had discussed what would happen if he was ever involved in a crash. She said: “Mark had told me to stay away from any crash site, and to also keep the children away. “Because of this, we didn’t go in the early days after the crash. “An army of friends and family came to help us after the crash, but after a few weeks we had to return to ‘just the three of us’. “You need to know that it [grief] is an incredibly long journey, but it will soften and you will get through it.”
Mark was a wonderful father and cherished our children; his own dad died when he was 14 HERMIONE DUFFY SPEAKING ON RTE RADIO YESTERDAY