Divers bid to retrieve black box from Rescue 116
A signal from the recorder device was detected at 4pm yesterday after 36 hours of searching. It was detected approximately 60 metres off the small island on which Blackrock lighthouse stands.
Specialist equipment arrived to Blacksod Bay in Co Mayo from Britain last night to assist in the search for R116, which crashed in the early hours of Tuesday morning, claiming the life of Captain Dara Fitzpatrick.
The helicopter’s other three crew members Captain Mark Duffy, winchman Ciarán Smith and winch operator Paul Ormsby are still missing. Their families are maintaining a vigil at Blacksod pier.
“We’ve detected a signal so the next stage will be to actually locate it. We’ve now begun the process of establishing the exact position so it’s a process of homing and triangulation,” Gerard O’Flynn, head of search and rescue operations with the Irish Coast Guard, said last night.
The 86-metre high lighthouse where the black box is near lies 10km off the Mayo coast.
The Air Accident Investigation Unit’s (AAUI) chief inspector of air accidents, Jurgen Whyte, explained the task ahead.
“It’s in a difficult area, difficult waters just off the large rock called Blackrock. It’s in 40 metres of depth.
“So we need to find the top point and when we find the top point we have a fixed position and from there we need to bring in more equipment to dive down or use a robot to dive down and actually locate the recorder there and the hope is the recorder is with the wreckage,” Mr Whyte said.
He explained that smaller vessels were needed to get as close to the “little chirp” noise which the black box gives off.
“We have the Celtic Voyager out there. Unfortunately, the Voyager couldn’t get in as close but we had smaller vessels with Marine Institute people on board and they went in with smaller equipment and they started picking up the signal itself.
“It’s a very faint signal, it’s like a little chirp and as you go towards it, it gets louder and as you move away it gets quieter,” said the AAUI chief inspector.
Mr Whyte described just how hard it is to find the box’s exact location in the ocean but said the cross-agency search team had all the equipment needed.
“So this is sort of a needle in a haystack and you’re trying to triangulate from different areas to get the loudest noise and when you get the loudest noise you know the wreckage should be beneath that point.
“So far we have the right equipment and we are having to adapt the use of this equipment due to the area that we are operating in.
“I can say we have more equipment coming in from the UK. It’ll be arriving here at 6pm with two investigators with my equivalent in the UK and I believe we have the appropriate equipment to pinpoint this wreckage,” said Mr Whyte.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Irish Lights (CIL) confirmed to the Irish Examiner that the lantern of Blackrock lighthouse was working at the time R116 was operating in the area.
The beam has a range of 20-nautical miles (white) and 16 nautical miles (red).
The CIL also confirmed that the lighthouse’s Automatic Identification System (AIS) — which emits a locator beacon to mariners and which can be picked up by aircraft — was also fully operational.
The search operation was scaled down yesterday evening and began again today at first light as families of the three missing crew members, who are said to be “devastated”, wait nearby.
Minister for Transport Shane Ross met with the families yesterday afternoon.
“They’re completely and utterly devastated by what’s happened.
“They told us how they felt and we saluted them for their bravery which they’re showing in this situation and for the family members which they lent to the nation,” he said.
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
