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A PILOT HAD raised concerns four years ago that Black Rock island off Mayo was not on the onboard warning systems that Coast Guard search and rescue teams use, but no action was taken.
A report on RTÉ’s Prime Time this evening detailed these issues were flagged well before Rescue 116 went down in March.
Captain Dara Fitzpatrick was recovered at sea soon after the helicopter went down, but died later in hospital. The body of pilot Mark Duffy was found in the wreckage of the helicopter some weeks later.
The bodies of winch operator Paul Ormsby (53) and winchman Ciarán Smith (38) have yet to be recovered.
Search and Rescue
The Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue service is run by private operator, CHC Ireland, which won a 10-year €500 million contract to provide the service in 2012.
Each helicopter has been equipped with an enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) since 2013.
This system is designed to warn pilots to take appropriate action to avoid a collision if they get too close to terrain or some obstacle.
The EGPWS can only work when it has a complete map of the terrain and obstacles. Black Rock island was not on this system.
The crew on board Rescue 116 did not receive the warning about the island until it was too late.
Prime Time found a chain of emails between Sligo-based Coast Guard pilots and a senior CHC manager dating back to 2013, in which the omission of Black Rock on the system was flagged.
A source quoted in the programme said that the pilot had spotted the omission while carrying out a test flight.
Information passed on
That source said that Coast Guard personnel were told at a meeting six weeks after the Rescue 116 crash that management was trying to establish if this information had been passed on to the company that supplied the EGPWS system.
That company – called Honeywell – told RTÉ that it couldn’t comment due to the ongoing investigation into the crash.
A spokesperson for CHC also said the company could not comment on this specific case, but said that it has “multiple systems and programmes that encourage employees to report any safety concerns”.
There were also claims that the EGPWS provided inaccurate data on other terrains around Ireland, including Skellig Michael off Kerry.
That data was provided by the Irish Aviation Authority, and it said that it only learned that its data for Skellig Michael was incorrect nine days after the Rescue 116 crash.
Until 24 March this year, the official IAA aeronautical map had the island at just 174 feet high. That is in fact the height of the lighthouse on the island. Its actual height is 712 feet.
The IAA has since issued a revised map.
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Fear not.
The working class will pick up the tab…………..as always.
Not necessarily. We could nationalise the banks and operate them in the interests of the majority instead of the profiteering of the few. A nationalized banking system could for example stop the flood of family home evictions , the cost of which ultimately falls on the tax payer through hotel bills etc not to mention the huge social costs.
Wally where do you think the people of Ireland earn money in order to pay tax which in turn pays the half wits in government? Capitalism. Like it loath it, it’s what pays for everything.
Joshua,
Money is not a scare resource. It’s created on the keyboards of the world’s central and commercial banks. Sovereign governments (not the Eurozone ones) spend their own currency into existence at will and the tax it back out of circulation in a continuous flow. Government spending creates the money and taxation deletes it. Commercial bank lending also creates new money each time a loan issued and the money is deleted as the loan is paid back.
Money is not a scarce resource but it is a claim on the real resources which the working class produces through our labour and therein lies its power.
did we not borrow billions from the uk to bail out the bankrupted Irish banks? surely these loans are in sterling, and should decrease – we should be hedged in this.
Yes… But we subsequently issued our own treasury bonds in euro to refinance those loans at lower rates.
Don;t worry. Enda announced yesterday he has a “Plan B”. I’d like to hear that Plan B today Enda. every journalist in this country should now be on his coattails and asking that very question. All our newspapers should be leading tomorrow morning with the headline, “What’s your Plan B, Enda?”.
Has he finished that game of golf with Biden yet?
Someone should keep a very close eye on Noonan as he will be monitoring his own personal stock holdings and not the countries. Maybe it’s time in the national interest to put some one who will put the Irish people first and remove Noonan.
To quote my old lecturer who managed a hedgefund “when there’s blood on the streets, buy” Horrible saying but i suppose now would be the time to invest in some of the old reliable UK companies. IAG’s down 25% which is fooking huge
IAG’s manipulating the situation… issued a profit warning but it far too soon for this decision to effect their profit.
Their premium traffic has been down and they’ve cut prices and been selling cheap tickets for weeks as well as running half empty planes on their Middle East oil routes. Walsh is using Brexit to cover up other market weakness/poor management.
time to scrutinize these figures as they usually mask whats really going on…
A “shock decision”?
Only if you have “eyes-wide-shut” for the last several years.
It is not shock decision to people who keep their eyes wide open.
.
Ireland can take GREAT advantage of this.
Ireland will be the only English speaking country left in the EU !
Opportunity knocks for Ireland.
(Nobody in Europe will miss the Brits anyway….they were always Semi-Detached.)
Wow. The panic in Ireland’s political and media establishment over the Brexit victory is akin to the fall of Saigon in 1975.
It’s wonderful.
The U.K. is the 5th biggest economy in the world, this Brexit might make it the 4th without all the E.U. RED TAPE or has no one thought of that?
Europe is the only continent not to see growth in a decade.
They’ve dropped to 6th.
You do get that all the red tape is actually safety regulations in most cases that the UK will still have to abide by. They also have to create their own legislation from scratch on a lot of this.
Maybe Ireland should go with the UK before the whole EU circus crumbles
UK will make a killing on exports they will under cut others without having to explain themselves to Brussels
Most of the UK income is from services. They import most raw materials for their production. They also have to sell it to somebody. As most of their manufacturers aren’t English owned they very well simply move production out of the UK. It is more likely they will spiral into a long recession. The financial charge levi is likely to come in and move out of the UK too.
Kal, See my long comment on http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/brexit-populist-farce-2834352-Jun2016/ to answer that…
The only one Grundy…
Anton, What will Germany do now not being able to control who they trade with compared to Germany’s exports?
Gus, it will collapse as monetary union can’t work without a political union and that is the problem with the Euro now, look at how Germany and the ECB do our budgets for us. Nearly as bad as Merkel changing our nappies for us?
Kevin they will bounce back…
Uncertainty is always good for capatilism.
Are you sure?
Another non story with ‘business’ journos masterbating over share prices…
Until these shares are traded, nothing is lost or gained.
So do the British government have to pay us back what we lost in their banks a là 2008..?
Micka asked what’s in it for him and where is his free gaff!
That’s the real bleedin’ issue over he-are
Does this mean we can start smuggling stuff across de border again make a few quid.lol
Just means they will be playing less Golf next month
Wait for your car insurance to soar coz all Irish insurers are underwritten by lloyds. Insurers will now pass the costs onto us
Now thats amazing, its irish tax payers money when the bank takes a hit…..and its the banks money when profits are made or they are turfing somebody out of a house they own
have they been gambling with our money again
Don’t remember ever getting any of my bonus from my investments. Go way who cares we will never see any of it anyway.
As far as i can see this was a vote against the Tories…and commentary now equates it to the swing of English citizens to the far right?I feel there’s more to it than just that!
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