Helmet and lifejacket found washed up belonged to Rescue 116 winchman Ciarán Smith

Rescue 116 went down in March with four crew onboard while preparing to refuel at Blacksod, Co Mayo.

By Cormac Fitzgerald Tuesday 3 Oct 2017, 8:01 AM

Oct 3rd 2017, 8:01 AM 17,533 Views 8 Comments

http://jrnl.ie/3626995

GARDAÍ HAVE CONFIRMED that equipment found washed up on the Mayo coast belonged to a missing Rescue 116 crewmember.

A helmet and lifejacket found on shore at Elly, located near Clogher has been confirmed to have belonged to missing winchman Ciarán Smith.

The items were located at around 8.20am Saturday.

Rescue 116 went down in March with four crew onboard while preparing to refuel at Blacksod, Co Mayo.

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. There have been a number of searches for the missing crewmembers since then, including several this July.

Gardaí said that investigations were ongoing.

Read: Helmet and lifejacket found on Mayo shore

Read: Searches resume for missing Rescue 116 crew members

Short URL

About the author:

About the author

Cormac Fitzgerald

@cormfitz

cormac@thejournal.ie

See more articles by Cormac Fitzgerald

Contribute to this story:

COMMENTS (8)

This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic. Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy here before taking part.

write a comment

Leave a commentcancel

Facebook

Twitter

Share Comment on Facebook or Twitter

∞

About Us

Corrections

Report Content

Policies

TheJournal.ie supports the work of the Press Council of Ireland and the Office of the Press Ombudsman, and our staff operate within the Code of Practice. You can obtain a copy of the Code, or contact the Council, at www.presscouncil.ie, PH: (01) 6489130, Lo-Call 1890 208 080 or email: info@presscouncil.ie

Please note that TheJournal.ie uses cookies to improve your experience and to provide services and advertising. For more information on cookies please refer to our cookies policy.

News images provided by Press Association and Photocall Ireland unless otherwise stated. Irish sport images provided by Inpho Photography unless otherwise stated. Wire service provided by Associated Press.

Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for user created content, posts, comments, submissions or preferences. Users are reminded that they are fully responsible for their own created content and their own posts, comments and submissions and fully and effectively warrant and indemnify Journal Media in relation to such content and their ability to make such content, posts, comments and submissions available. Journal Media does not control and is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Helmet and lifejacket found washed up belonged to Rescue 116 winchman Ciarán Smith

Rescue 116 went down in March with four crew onboard while preparing to refuel at Blacksod, Co Mayo.

Read: Helmet and lifejacket found on Mayo shore