Air Traffic investigators investigating the crash of the Rescue 116 Irish coast guard helicopter have said recovering the helicopters black box is key in order to determine what the crash.
The rescue helicopter which was responding to an emergency call out in the early hours of this morning unexpectedly went off radar and disappeared at 1am.
Reports say there were four crew members on board the helicopter at the time of the crash, and in the past few hours rescue services have confirmed they have recovered the body of captain Dara Fitzpatrick.
The three other crew members are still missing as the search continues with garda divers being called in to search the seas off the Mayo coast.
However investigators believe the black box recovery will be key in determining the cause of the crash. Speaking to RTE Jurgen Whyte, Chief Aeronautical Officer with the unit said: “These recorders are modern enough that we can actually, if we can recover the recorder and if it is functioning correctly, we can hopefully re-analyse the flight and actually get the aircraft to fly again digitally.”
“That will help investigators a lot to actually determine what was happening in the final moments of the flight.”