Coast Guard confirm crew member rescued on Tuesday morning has died

Search and rescue operations are ongoing for the three other crew members still missing.

The Coast Guard has confirmed that the crew member rescued this morning from the scene of a helicopter crash off the Mayo coast has died. One crew member had been found at the scene in critical condition and was transferred to Mayo University Hospital. She was later pronounced dead. According to RTÉ, the crew member has been named at Blacksod, Mayo this afternoon as Captain Dara Fitzpatrick. She was a Captain of over 20 years' experience and her passing has been described as a hammer blow to the emergency services by Gerard O'Flynn, the Search and Rescue operations manager. There are still no clues as to what happened to the helicopter and a full investigation will be launched into the incident. Rescue 116 had been providing cover for another Coast Guard helicopter Rescue 118, when it lost contact at around 1am on Tuesday morning. Rescue 118 successfully completed an evacuation of a crew member on a vessel 240km west of Eagle Island on Tuesday morning; Rescue 116 had been deployed from Dublin and had been providing top cover for Rescue 118's operation.