Search of Mullet shoreline to continue after R116 discovery

COASTAL SEARCHES  More searches are set to continue along the Mullet peninsula after the finds at the weekend.  Pic: Keith Heneghan/Phocus

Anton McNulty

Fresh searches along the shoreline of the Mullet Peninsula will continue this week following the discovery of equipment belonging to one of the two missing crew members of the R116, but poor weather conditions will prevent any fresh seas searches.
A helmet and a lifejacket, confirmed last night as belonging to CiarΡn Smith, was discovered on Saturday by a member of the public washed ashore on a beach near An Clochar, close to Elly Bay on the Mullet peninsula.
Supt Tony Healy of Belmullet Garda Station described the discovery as significant.
“The latest update is that we will continue to search along the shore and see if anything else washes in,” Supt Healy told The Mayo News yesterday (Monday). “Nothing else has been found, but Saturday’s discovery was a significant find. More searches will continue, but unfortunately the weather is not safe to search at sea.”
The beach where the gear was found is on the west side of the Mullet peninsula close to Elly Bay, and the life jacket and the helmet were attached together. It is thought that a cord on the jacket may have snagged on a rock in recent days, inflating the jacket and bringing it to the surface.
Supt Healy said he did not believe that the items had been on the shore for long before being discovered. He thanked the public for continuing to keep an eye out for items that might wash ashore from the crash site, and urged anyone who finds anything to report it to Belmullet Garda Station.
The helmet and life jacket are being examined for any clues they might hold as to the whereabouts of the bodies of the missing crewmen.
Winch crew Paul Ormsby and CiarΡn Smith have been missing since March 14 when their Sikorsky S-92 helicopter crashed off Blackrock island, claiming the lives of the two men and their colleagues, Captain Dara Fitzpatrick and Captain Mark Duffy.
Meanwhile the Sligo-based Coast Guard helicopter R118 was involved in a medical evacuation of a passenger on board the cruise ship, Marco Polo, on Wednesday, September 27. The rendezvous with the ship took place approximately 190 miles west of Erris Head shortly before 8.30am.
The Dublin-based Coast Guard helicopter R116 provided top cover for R118, which transferred the casualty to Sligo University Hospital.