Coast Guard Tragedy: Major operation to locate Rescue 116 wreckage

A major operation to locate the wreckage of downed Rescue 116 is due to get underway at first light off Mayo today.

A team from the Irish Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) will use special equipment to scour the Atlantic seabed for the Irish Coast Guard’s Dublin-based Sikorsky S92, which went down without warning off Blacksod around 12.45am yesterday.

The AAIU hope their scanning equipment will locate the aircraft wreckage, which is believed to be lying in about 40m of water, and hone in on the signal from its black-box.

The AAIU team, backed by two British air accident investigation experts, arrived in the area yesterday and oversaw the positioning of specialised search vessels, underwater remotely-operated vehicles, and a range of hi-tech detection equipment.

They will deploy this morning on board a Marine Institute vessel, which has been drafted in for the search and recovery operation, and travel to the last known location of the doomed helicopter.

They will use sonar sea-bed scanning equipment to locate the wreckage and special detection devices to hone in on the signal from its voice and flight data recorder.

Although separate devices are found in fixed-wing aircraft, they are a combined in a single unit in helicopters.

The device, which records voices on the flight deck as well as key engine and flight parameters, is battery-powered and water-proof and will emit a tracking signal for up to 30 days.

However, the AAIU’s chief inspector of air accidents, Jurgen Whyte, said he and his team are hopeful of locating the wreckage quickly.

Wreckage, including several lightweight panels found floating in an area of sea near the aircraft’s last-known location, was recovered, brought ashore, and identified yesterday.

Mr Whyte said it is far too early to draw inferences from the recovered wreckage, or to speculate on what may have caused the tragedy, and that finding the wrecking and black box will be crucial to their investigation.