THE inflated life jacket and helmet found on a west of Ireland beach is confirmed to belong to a missing R116 crew member.
On Saturday, September 30, a helmet and inflated life jacket were recovered by a member of the public at 8.20am at Elly, in Clogher Co. Mayo.
The beach is ten kilometres from Blacksod Lighthouse, where the Coast Guard R116 helicopter last made contact before it crashed on Blackrock island in March this year.
In a statement, a garda spokesman told The Irish Post: "Gardaí can now confirm that the lifejacket and helmet are that of Ciarán Smith, one of the missing crew of Rescue Helicopter R116 that crashed into Blackrock."
The crew of R116 were dispatched from Dublin to assist in the recovery of an injured crewman from a boat off the Mayo coast on the night of March 13, but lost contact with the Coast Guard in the early hours of March 14.
Captain Dara Fitzpatrick was recovered at sea later that day, while the body of fellow Captain Mark Duffy was found in the wreckage two weeks after the crash.
While an extensive search was carried out in the weeks following the crash, winch man Ciarán Smith, 38, and winch operator Paul Ormsby, 53, are yet to be recovered.
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