R116 report: Shane Ross pledges search and rescue review

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.

Shane Ross was responding to the publication yesterday of an interim report on the crash of R116 on March 14 last year, in which Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, 45, co-pilot Capt Mark Duffy, 51, winch operator Paul Ormsby, 53, and winchman Ciaran Smith, 38, lost their lives while on a SAR mission off the Mayo coast.

The report raises questions about oversight of SAR aviation operations in Ireland, which are excluded from the regulatory framework of civil aviation.