The Transport Minister says it is vital that lessons are learned from the deaths of five people during separate coast guard missions as a new oversight plan for search and rescue (SAR) operations in Ireland was published.

The four Irish Coast Guard air crew who lost their lives in the Rescue 116 helicopter crash two years ago were remembered with prayers in north Mayo last night.

The Air Accident Investigation Unit’s final report into the loss of four Irish Coast Guard air crew off the north Mayo coast will not now be completed before the second anniversary of the crash.

The memorial event also served to highlight the simmering sense of injustice felt by many, writes Noel Baker.

A helmet and lifejacket believed to be from crashed Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 have been recovered from the Atlantic almost 16 months after the tragedy.

Historian Catherine Corless, the Irish Coast Guard, crew of Rescue 116, rugby referee Joy Neville and campaigner Vera Twomey were among those honoured at tonight’s Rehab People of the Year Awards.

The Irish Coast Guard, which lost five members over the last two years, is to be honoured at the People of the Year Awards tomorrow night for putting their lives on the line for others.

The Transport Minister has pledged a prompt review of search and rescue (SAR) aviation operations in line with a key recommendation of a report examining a fatal helicopter crash in which four members of the Irish Coast Guard perished.

Latest: Families and friends of those killed in the Rescue 116 crash have come together to mark one year since the tragedy.

Niamh Fitzpatrick, sister of Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, tweeted: “Through these absolute worst times in life I have seen the absolute best of humanity. Thank you.”

A date has been set for preliminary inquests into the Rescue 116 helicopter crash which killed all four crew members on board.

Two families who lost loved ones on board ill-fated Rescue 116 helicopter, which crashed off the Mayo coast, said they remain broken-hearted and urged people to remember the real meaning of Christmas.

A Sea King helicopter, one of the world’s most iconic search and rescue aircraft, is to be named after Capt Dara Fitzpatrick who was among four crew killed in the Rescue 116 tragedy.

The company that runs the search and rescue helicopter service, CHC Ireland, received repeated warnings over five years that the life jackets they supplied to their pilots were not fit for purpose.

Gardaí have confirmed that equipment discovered on a Mayo beach over the weekend belonged to a crew member of the missing Rescue 116 helicopter.

Tests are expected to be carried out today on items discovered in Mayo - to determine if they belong to the missing crew of Rescue 116.

Nearly 100 boats have taken part in a cross-border flotilla on Carlingford Lough in memory of the crew of a rescue helicopter which crashed off the County Mayo coast.

Another search operation to locate the bodies of the Missing Crewmen of Rescue 116 will continue off the coast of Mayo this morning.

Teams will continue the search for missing Rescue 116 crewmen Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith today.

Searches will continue off the Mayo coast again today for the bodies of missing Rescue 116 crewmen Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith.

Catch up on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com this morning.

Renewed searches will get underway from 7am this morning around the crash site of the Irish Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

Renewed sonar searches and trawling has begun around the crash site of the Irish Coast Guard helicopter that went down in the Atlantic.

Catch up on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com this morning.

The search for the remaining two crew members of Irish Coast Guard helicopter R116 will resume today after bad weather hampered efforts over the weekend.

Searches are due to resume off Co Mayo today for the lost crew of Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

THIS week marked two anniversaries of tragedies — or atrocities if you’d prefer to be more direct — where too many lives were needlessly lost. 

A new search gets underway this weekend for the bodies of two airmen still missing since Coast Guard Rescue 116 crashed off the Donegal coast earlier this year.

A video project entitled “Rescue 116: The people behind the recovery” has earned Shane McNamara, a MA in Journalism student at the University of Limerick, top prize in the inaugural Irish Examiner / University of Limerick video journalism competition.

The wife of one of the pilots killed in the Rescue 116 helicopter crash off the coast of Co Mayo last March has issued an open letter thanking the public for their support.

It is now over 50 days since Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 and its crew came to their tragic and untimely end.

International and Irish pilots have come together to condemn as “unwarranted, unacceptable and counterproductive to flight safety” the publication of the last two minutes of the cockpit voice recordings of ill-fated Irish Coast Guard helicopter, Rescue 116.

Four flares were let off into the Waterford sky as a wreath was laid at sea in a tribute to the crew members of Irish Coast Guard helicopter R116.

Hundreds of well-wishers paid tribute to the crew of Rescue 116 at a special ceremony today.

Black Rock lighthouse and the island it stands on were not included in a navigational database used by helicopter R116 and there is no assurance that a similar accident could not happen again.

An initial report into the Rescue 116 helicopter crash says it "pitched up rapidly" in its final seconds.

The Marine Institute's ROV submarine carried out its last dive off Blackrock island today, and has left Blacksod bay on board the Irish Lights vessel the Granuaile.

Searchers for the remaining missing crew members of Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116 are concentrating on the area around the crash site again after the disappointment over the weekend’s flotilla exercise.

Latest: There is still no sign of missing Rescue 116 crewmen Ciarán Smith and Paul Ormsby, despite one of the largest sea searches ever undertaken in the history of the state.

Up to 1,000 people will this weekend mobilise in an air, sea, and land search for missing R116 helicopter crew members Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith.

UNLESS weather conditions deteriorated dramatically overnight a major sea search is underway off our north west coast.

Latest: A large fleet of trawlers is being organised to search part of the Atlantic off the northwest coast for the two winchmen missing from crashed Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 116.

No trace has been found of the two missing crewmen from Rescue 116 after it was lifted from the seabed off Blackrock Island, Co Mayo.

Latest: Searches are to continue for two missing Irish Coast Guard crew members after a major operation to lift their helicopter from the sea failed to locate them.