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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

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January

smurfjed wrote: »

Also considering that the landing site on Blackrock isn't apparently large enough for the S92, it leads to multiple questions that at this stage can only be answered by speculation !

R118 landed on Blackrock the other day

Cianmcliam

January wrote: »

R118 landed on Blackrock the other day

I think that was the AC. R118 landed on Inishskea for a while but it was the AC who brought the AAIU to Black Rock.

JimWinters

IIRC R118 landed on Blackrock on Wednesday afternoon, it returned to Blacksod directly after and a piece of what looks like tail section was removed from the rear ramp of the helicopter. I cant post a link to the pic but it was tweeted widely

I've been following the story since it broke last, can't get it out of my head to be honest, my heart goes out to the crew and their families.

I have a couple of questions though:

I've seen the last position of R116 around 1km west of Blackrock travelling around 100 knots. Does anyone know what their height was at this point? At that speed they were not approaching to land at Blackrock.

One of the saddest parts for me is that it took so long to locate Captain Fitzpatrick, almost seven hours. I've seen mentions of the Coast Guard crews using automatically activated EPIRB. Is it normal to take so long to find someone once an EPRIB has been activated?

Thanks..

Storm 10

JimWinters wrote: »

IIRC R118 landed on Blackrock on Wednesday afternoon, it returned to Blacksod directly after and a piece of what looks like tail section was removed from the rear ramp of the helicopter. I cant post a link to the pic but it was tweeded widely

I've been following the story since it broke last, can't get it out of my head to be honest, my heart goes out to the crew and their families.

I have a couple of questions though:

I've seen the last position of R116 around 1km west of Blackrock travelling around 100 knots. Does anyone know what their height was at this point? At that speed they were not approaching to land at Blackrock.

One of the saddest parts for me is that it took so long to locate Captain Fitzpatrick, almost seven hours. I've seen mentions of the Coast Guard crews using automatically activated EPIRB. Is it normal to take so long to find someone once an EPRIB has been activated?

Thanks..

That's part of this unexplained incident not one singe EPRIB on the crew or the helicopter were activated

coillsaille

JimWinters wrote: »

IIRC R118 landed on Blackrock on Wednesday afternoon, it returned to Blacksod directly after and a piece of what looks like tail section was removed from the rear ramp of the helicopter. I cant post a link to the pic but it was tweeded widely

I've been following the story since it broke last, can't get it out of my head to be honest, my heart goes out to the crew and their families.

I have a couple of questions though:

I've seen the last position of R116 around 1km west of Blackrock travelling around 100 knots. Does anyone know what their height was at this point? At that speed they were not approaching to land at Blackrock.

One of the saddest parts for me is that it took so long to locate Captain Fitzpatrick, almost seven hours. I've seen mentions of the Coast Guard crews using automatically activated EPIRB. Is it normal to take so long to find someone once an EPRIB has been activated?

Thanks..

Jurgen Whyte said in the Primetime interview that it was the Air Corps helicopter who brought him and his team onto Blackrock so I'm not sure about that point.
On the EPIRB issue I have seen mentioned on another aviation forum that the CG heli crews have manually activated ones not automatic. But you've seen mentions of the opposite which is just one example of the amount of contradictory information in circulation. All will be answered with time I suppose.
Weather has calmed down a lot here on Galway Bay so I hope it's the same up there and that they are able to use the window of opportunity to full benefit.

JimWinters

Thanks Coillsaille, I had seen it in mentioned in a report from the AAIU re incident at Hook Head where the sea scout slipped from the strop and fell back into the water.

"The Winchman was deployed at 14.14 hrs via the winch with two Rescue Strops; one a Helicopter Rescue Strop and the other a Hypothermic Rescue Strop. He entered the water less than one minute later. This event was captured on the CVR by the sound of the
Winchman’s SARBE11 beacon, which activated on immersion"

To clarify, it seems the SABRE only emitted a noise that was picked up on the Cockpit Voice Recorder and is not the same as an EPRIB which as you mention would be manually activated. I hope this helps others. Again it raises other questions or points to other things but I don't want to speculate.

Low tide is at 15:32 at Blacksod, I thought that was the window of opportunity for Granuaile but it's still anchored back in the bay. Maybe another delay?

.G.

The plan was to map the sea bed today, Granuaille is not due there until tomorrow. They need to see the underwater terrain to see if they can get the ship where they need it.

cosanostra

2 small boats have been fairly stationary at blackrock for over an hour one right at blackrock the other just off the coast they might be doing a dive before trying to do any lift

Coil Kilcrea

Like everyone here, I'm tremendously saddened by this tragedy and grateful to so many of you who have generously shared so much to help answer difficult questions. And whilst much remains unclear, it's enormously helpful.

Here's hoping the weather allows the next steps to happen speedily so they can bring the lads home to their loved one's. So so sad.

It's strange not hearing or seeing R116 ....we've lost our friends who watched out for us.

Thanks to everyone here and in the country for caring.

Storm 10

Very strange looking at Marine Traffic and a boat called Geo that was beside Blackrock is heading out to sea towards trawlers at 35 knots, wonder if they have found something

cosanostra

Storm 10 wrote: »

Very strange looking at Marine Traffic and a boat called Geo that was beside Blackrock is heading out to sea towards trawlers at 35 knots, wonder if they have found something

Looks more like a glitch says it's doing 35kn

prunudo

cosanostra wrote: »

Looks more like a glitch says it's doing 35kn

A long way out for such a small boat too. R118 is heading back out as well to re join the search now.

cosanostra

118 seems to have landed on the west side of iniskea north the rest of the search are returning to blacksod

323

Storm 10 wrote: »

Just a thought here guys would a Royal Navy Merlin that carry equipment to locate a submarine that they lower into the sea be any use in Blacksod , it would not be weather dependent as they could hover around the Island with the device lowered into the sea, any thoughts on this

No. Excellent piece of kit for sub hunting but totally different function.

Best/Most efficient way to find something like this on the seabed in real time is with Sidescan sonar.

Example image here, doesn't always look this pretty but is a sales page.
Navy/Marine institute vessel there will most likely be pulling sidescan sonars for this search.

coillsaille

That small craft Geo has been around Blackrock since this morning according to Marine Traffic. It appears to belong to the Geological Survey Ireland so it may have scanning equipment and is mapping the undersea pinnacles near the islet so the Granuaile can get close in without grounding. (Or it also looks like it could be used as a dive boat although I'd imagine the navy has plenty of them to hand.)

smurfjed

Photo taken from Dailymail.co.uk.
What an amazing tribute from the IRFU.

stampydmonkey

coillsaille wrote: »

That small craft Geo has been around Blackrock since this morning according to Marine Traffic. It appears to belong to the Geological Survey Ireland so it may have scanning equipment and is mapping the undersea pinnacles near the islet so the Granuaile can get close in without grounding. (Or it also looks like it could be used as a dive boat although I'd imagine the navy has plenty of them to hand.)

Yes GSI boat, for shallow waters.

http://www.infomar.ie/surveying/Geo/Geo.php

donkey balls

Was talking to my mate the other night about the accident, He is ex IAC and knew the 2 lads from there time in the IAC.
Hopefully they recover the 3 lads soon on another note if you Google maps the church were Dara mass was held the road nbr is R116.

Cianmcliam

Looking like the Granuaile is on its way back out to Black Rock, interesting development?

martinsvi

murphaph wrote: »

Blackrock seems to have a 24s period with nominal range of 24 miles (in clear visibility). In fog it's quite conceivable the crew did not see it. Lighthouses are not for aviation at all. They are for relatively slow moving sea vessels that can go nowhere near as fast as an aircraft and are generally looking out for a specific lighthouse on their chart (much less so nowadays with GPS however) to get their bearings. I did a pleasure craft operators license course/test and we learned basic navigation, which involves looking out for landmarks like lighthouses and buoys and using triangulation to work out where you are.

Edit: it's 12s but I think the point still stands.

lighthouses might not, of course, originally been intended for aviation, but they sure as hell make an excellent landmarks for VFR, especially at night

Coil Kilcrea

Cianmcliam wrote: »

Looking like the Granuaile is on its way back out to Black Rock, interesting development?

Perhaps the weather has settled. Hopefully.

Irish Steve

R118 has also been carrying out a comprehensive coastal sweep around much of the area

Gaoth Laidir

martinsvi wrote: »

lighthouses might not, of course, originally been intended for aviation, but they sure as hell make an excellent landmarks for VFR, especially at night

With a 24-second frequency, though, it's not much use to an aircrew flying in a 300-ft ceiling and 3 km visibility. Flying at 100 knots there would be only 1 flash visible within that 3-km range. Blink and you'll miss it.

coillsaille

Coil Kilcrea wrote: »

Perhaps the weather has settled. Hopefully.

I'm surprised the Granuaile is heading out, there's a gale warning issued for tonight.

Edit: Unless they're hoping to make some progress before the strong winds hit.

Coil Kilcrea

coillsaille wrote: »

I'm surprised the Granuaile is heading out, there's a gale warning issued for tonight.

Edit: Unless they're hoping to make some progress before the strong winds hit.

Yes, it's admirable, the intensity and determination of the rescue services and all involved to do everything possible.

Irish Steve

LE Eithne also on the way back out, and R118 is still carrying out intensive coastal searches around the islands to the North East of Blackrock, Duvillaun More and Duvillaun Beg.

Gadgetman496

This is what the small boats were doing

A "weather window" allowed local boats to get closer to Blackrock Lighthouse for the first time since Wednesday.

There they deployed sonar equipment to try and get a better fix on the location for the black box flight recorder from R116.

Source: RTE News

homerjay2005

definate activity around the rock alright at the moment.

Storm 10

I guess that are using the ROV while they have the weather window .Please God they find the missing crew

eagerv

Many Lighthouses around our coast are fitted with fixed AIS transmitters, including I am fairly certain Blackrock.

In times of poor Vis surely these are of more use than the lights.