Attempts are to be made by the Irish Lights ship Granuaile early on Wednesday morning to deploy a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in the continued search for three missing Irish Coast Guard air crew off north Mayo.
The Marine Institute’s ROV was deployed for the first time briefly on Tuesday night off Blackrock island – the last known position of Rescue 116, the Dublin-based Sikorsky S-92 helicopter which crashed a week ago with four crew on board.
Pilot Capt Dara Fitzpatrick died in the crash some 13km west of Blacksod, and Capt Mark Duffy, winch crew Paul Ormsby and Ciaran Smith are still not accounted for.
However, currents were too strong for the ROV on the southeast corner of the island, in a narrow channel between the main plateau and the “Parrot” rocks.
Irish Coast Guard spokesman Niall Ferns said another attempt will be made at low water early Wednesday morning.
"We are just on the cusp of this if the swell can just settle a bit more," Cdr Brian Fitzgerald of the LE Eithne, on-scene co-ordinator, told The Irish Times.
The Granuaile returned to Blacksod late Tuesday night and will steam out to the island at first light, when slack tides at low water will make ROV deployment easier. The Naval Service diving team is on standby.
Black box recorder
Weather conditions are expected to settle further from Thursday until the weekend, as a concerted push is made to locate the three men and missing helicopter in the sea area where the faint signal from the black box recorder is still being detected.
The Air Accident Investigation Unit (AAIU) made a further trip to Blackrock by Air Corps helicopter on Tuesday but nothing significant was reported.
AAIU chief inspector Jurgen Whyte said that the investigators’ opinion “at this point” is that “some contact was made with a section of the aircraft on the western slopes of Blackrock”.
This followed examination of the tail fin section picked up by the AAIU team, assisted by British and US investigators, on Blackrock last Thursday.
“We can definitely confirm . . . that there was no direct impact with the lighthouse itself,” he said.
“There are a few shrapnel impacts where wreckage was probably flying through the air, they were light pieces of wreckage and one or two little marks were caused, but no significant marks.”
Army climbing experts had assisted the inspectors in abseiling down a grassy area at a 45-degree angle from the lighthouse, just above precipitous cliffs, to search for a point of impact.
“Really all we can say is that the aircraft tail made contact with some solid structure – more likely a rock in a placement at a glancing blow. From there we are of the opinion that the aircraft entered the water at some distance later,” he said.
Candlelight vigil
As the navigational lights from the two ships glimmered in the far distance, several hundred people joined relatives of the missing airmen at a candlelight vigil down on the shoreline near Blacksod.
The vigil at Fáil Móir against the snow-capped backdrop of Achill Head was attended by residents of the Erris area, rescue agency representatives, friends and colleagues of the four air crew, and volunteers who had travelled from many counties.
Prayers were said for the helicopter crew and their families, and for all those involved in the search effort since the helicopter lost communication in the early hours of March 14th.
Among those present were fishermen who put to sea in a heavy swell on Tuesday and combed the Inishkea islands.
“We found some debris, nothing significant, but at least we know this area has been checked again as the islands are in the track of the strong tides flowing north-south from Blackrock,” fisherman Eamon Dixon said.
Multibeam sonar imagery of the specific search area has been prepared by seabed mappers attached to the Marine Institute and Geological Survey of Ireland.
"The terrain is very tight in between rocks, but our three-dimensional image will allow the Granuaile to approach safely," programmer Thomas Furey explained.
“In any other country in Europe, it would have taken a lot longer to get to this stage, but we have this expertise in seabed mapping here,”he said.
