Rescue teams which recovered the body of an Irish Coast Guard pilot from the Atlantic seabed have said their hearts go out to the family.
Captain Mark Duffy’s remains had been trapped for days in the cockpit of Rescue 116 off Blackrock island, about 13km (eight miles) off the coast of Co Mayo.
The aircraft is an Sikorsky S92, which has become the go-to helicopter for North Sea oil and gas operations.
The wreck of Rescue 116 lies 40m down.
After a robot submersible worked through the night to cut away some of the cockpit Naval Service divers were sent down in relays, with only eight minutes at a time on the seabed, to free the pilot’s remains.
His body is the second of the four crew to have been recovered after the Sikorsky S92 crashed 12 days ago while on a rescue mission.
The body of Captain Dara Fitzpatrick, a 45-year-old mother-of-one, was the first to have been recovered from the ocean.
The other crew members are Winchman Ciaran Smith and Winch Operator Paul Ormsby and searches continue for them both at the wreck site and along the north Mayo coast and into Donegal bay.
Superintendent Tony Healy said relatives were being comforted while the body is taken to Mayo General Hospital in Castlebar for a post-mortem.
“It’s obviously a very upsetting time for them but I mean it’s the recovery of a loved one (which) is good news from that point of view but it’s a tragic loss,” he said.
Micheal O’Toole, Irish Coast Guard on scene coordinator, said: “It’s a very poignant day, very sad and very poignant, we have recovered one of our colleagues.
“Our hearts and our thoughts are specifically with the family today.”
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