Rescue 116 Crash at Blackrock, Co Mayo(Mod note in post 1)

sparrowcar

Contact lost just before 0100 off the west coast of Achill island on a rescue mission.
Search in progress including all available ships and Rescue 115.

Hopefully a positive outcome to this.

Please keep replies civil, and respectful of the crew and their families.

Please do not speculate as to any cause unless you have a factual basis to do so (and can back it up with information released to the public).

There will be zero tolerance for troublemakers or those that choose to ignore these guidelines.

There are other moderator messages in the thread, as a result of issues that have arisen, and we will be less forgiving going forward, due to the ongoing sensitivity of this incident

As per normal boards guidance, any comments on moderation are off topic and should be addressed directly to mods or cmods by PM. Any part of posts which are off topic in such a manner may be edited or removed, with possible sanction. Non news posts will be moved to the parallel R116 Non news and discussion thread

Should any new reports, updates or news stories come out, posts which can be boiled down to "I Told You So" or other triumphalism about previous commentary will result in significant punishment.

Any threadbans will carry over to any replacement thread should this approach 10,000 posts

AndyBoBandy

I really hope all is ok and all are located

Shannon757

Hope it's only a loss of comms and nothing else.

sparrowcar

Shannon757 wrote: »

Hope it's only a loss of comms and nothing else.

A 5 hour loss of comms?
I think it's a bit more serious than that now.
Hopefully they set her down gently.

Shannon757

sparrowcar wrote: »

A 5 hour loss of comms?
I think it's a bit more serious than that now.
Hopefully they set her down gently.

I agree with you. Hopefully they have landed safely.

sparrowcar

AndyBoBandy

5 hours into the situation and no mainstream media are running it as a story??

I really hope these guys training kicked in and they are all located safely very soon.


edit: Indo running the story now

knucklehead6

Not the news you want to wake up to. Hopefully there's a positive outcome, but I'm not optimistic

Shannon757

On Breakingnews.ie http://www.breakingnews.ie/ireland/search-operation-underway-for-missing-coastguard-helicopter-and-crew-781476.html

sparrowcar

Hopefully daylight brings some good news.

CardinalJ

Looking at marinetraffic.com can see the AirCorps CASA on scene as well as 115 from Shannon.

This is brutal. The crew do incredible work and while I wouldn't be at sea often at all I do a huge amount of hiking and they would help people in bother pretty much every weekend. Fingers Crossed.

SeaFields

Very shocking news to wake up to. The coastguard helicopters regularly pass over my place doing medical evacuations owing to our rural location.

As someone said, if something has gone wrong, hopefully the crews training has kicked in.

zl1whqvjs75cdy

Christ thats awful. I hope they're OK.

AndyBoBandy

Does anyone know if the SAR crews have personal EPIRB's on their suits?

DOCARCH

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

5 hours into the situation and no mainstream media are running it as a story??

They are now...main news item.

I really hope all are ok.

Two CG helis and air corp fixed wing aircraft involved in search.

deandean

This is scary. Those helicopters are built like tanks and maintained like swiss watches.
The Indo report said the last known location was 6 miles off Blacksod Bay.
Fingers crossed.

SEPT 23 1989

No mayday call must have been instant would that be correct?

CardinalJ

SEPT 23 1989 wrote:

No mayday call must have been instant would that be correct?

When you look at the path they took on marime traffic they were heading out into the Atlantic and then made a180 turn back before the track stops.

AndyBoBandy

CardinalJ wrote: »

When you look at the path they took on marime traffic they were heading out into the Atlantic and then made a180 turn back before the track stops.

That was their mission though, they were only shadowing 117 while it performed the rescue, providing coms as well as rescue cover.

They would have just went out, turned around and came back, as per their flight plan.

Storm 10

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

That was their mission though, they were only shadowing 117 while it performed the rescue, providing coms as well as rescue cover.

They would have just went out, turned around and came back, as per their flight plan.

They were to provide top cover for Rescue 118 who at the time was way out in the Atlantic on a tasking

Little CuChulainn

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

5 hours into the situation and no mainstream media are running it as a story??

I really hope these guys training kicked in and they are all located safely very soon.


edit: Indo running the story now

They have to notify family before they release the story.

CardinalJ

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

That was their mission though, they were only shadowing 117 while it performed the rescue, providing coms as well as rescue cover.

They would have just went out, turned around and came back, as per their flight plan.

I suppose the point I was getting at was that the track stops abruptly after they turned back in the direction of land.

LE Roisin has left Galway and is on the way to the area now.

stop

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

That was their mission though, they were only shadowing 117 while it performed the rescue, providing coms as well as rescue cover.

They would have just went out, turned around and came back, as per their flight plan.

Journal.ie quotes a cg spokesperson who said both refuelled at Blacksod, the Marine AIS doesn't show this though. 116 straight from Dublin without a stop.

Atlantic Dawn

5 trawlers also on the scene searching.

ectoraige

The lack of further need is very worrying, all crew would have their own beacons and be very well drilled for sea-ditches. Horrifying time for their family.

sparrowcar

ectoraige wrote: »

The lack of further need is very worrying, all crew would have their own beacons and be very well drilled for sea-ditches. Horrifying time for their family.

Agreed, it's too slow, something should have been found by now. Very worrying.

knucklehead6

sparrowcar wrote: »

Agreed, it's too slow, something should have been found by now. Very worrying.

It's only beginning to get bright over Mayo about now though. There is still some hope.

Blingy

Very sad to wake up to this news. Fingers crossed they find them soon.

aisling86

I still can't believe it, it's just so strange....Really praying for a positive outcome.

Mint Sauce

Please god this is still a rescue mission. Just reading this on Rte and BBC, and only saying that searches are in place. Over 6 hours is quite worrying though. Hopefully some news soon for all involved, family and friends included.

Gatling

Mint Sauce wrote: »

Please god this is still a rescue mission. Just reading this on Rte and BBC, and only saying that searches are in place. Over 6 hours is quite worrying though. Hopefully some news soon for all involved, family and friends included.

From Facebook.

The Coast Guard can confirm that there has been an incident involving one of our Search and Rescue (SAR) Helicopters off the west coast of Ireland.

At approximately 1am contact was lost with one of our SAR Helicopters. A major sea search is ongoing off the county Mayo coast approximately six miles west of Blacksod. SAR Helicopters from Sligo and Shannon are on scene along with the Air Corps Casa. Ballyglass and Achill all weather lifeboats (ALBs) are on scene along with five local fishing vessels.

The Sligo based Coast Guard helicopter R118 completed an early morning medical evacuation (medevac) of a crewman requiring urgent medical attention from a UK registered fishing vessel approximately 150 miles west of Eagle Island in County Mayo. Owing to the distance involved safety and communication support, known as Top Cover, was provided by the second Coast Guard helicopter, the Dublin based R116.

The search operation is being coordinated by the Coast Guard Rescue Coordination Centre in Malin Head. Both helicopters refuelled at Blacksod prior to transiting to the scene.

Ends
Press Office, Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport 01 604 1090 / 01 604 1093 / 086 8915570

Further updates to follow.