I heard one rumour that they possibly put the wrong place into their navigation system ( Blackrock instead of Black Sod). Would it be possible for something like that to happen.
Well it’s happened a few times with conventional flights. Wring coordinates etc. Not beyond the bounds of possibilities
It would I guess but then if they knew they were approaching what they thought was blacksod why were they travelling at speed? Last indicated speed was 90knts. What’s known now is that the helicopter crashed into the rock, why remains to be seen. Blackrock is not marked on a good number of ordinance survey maps, whether it was marked on their navigation system will tell a lot about what happened here. The cloud base on the night of the accident was 300ft, the height of blackrock is 300 ft. It’s plausible that on the approach to blacksod they went below cloud cover to gain visual on their approach and without blackrock being identified on their nav they collided with the rock.
Do you fly the chopper home from The Spots regularly now?
It’s a fairly sizeable rock though and if Black Sod is a regular refuelling point it would surely be on their navigation systems ?
You’d imagine so but I don’t know how familiar this crew would have been with the area. This was a Dublin based helicopter carrying out a mission off the west coast.
There’s only four rescue crews in the country; Sligo, Shannon, Dublin and Waterford (i think). They regularly assist each other on missions and have to switch bases to provide individual cover when crew members are on leave etc - unlikely that they wouldn’t be at least familiar with the area, especially given how experienced Capt Fitzpatrick was.
They carried out a near identical mission 6 days earlier .
In the dark with a 300 ft cloud base during a force 6 gale ?
Well the report said conditions were very similar.
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R116 Helicopter wreckage located off Blackrock Island
Hopefully the flight recorder etc. can put a bit of light on the situation, and they can find the bodies for a proper burial.
Or else thats where the Russians have deposited it to be found.
Damn Russians are everywhere.
Being reported tonight that Black Rock lighthouse wasn’t on their navigation system 
Is there not a massive fucking light shining out of it? Not like it can sneak up on you.
They are designed for slow moving boats. Not fast moving helicopters. Also it was very cloudy on the night.
Light travels pretty fast.
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I assume the light of a light house is pointed down towards the sea as opposed to up into the sky.
No mention of the russians?
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