Former head of the Irish Coast Guard, Chris Reynolds, has claimed that staffing cuts by the Department of Transport were contributory factors in the death of Caitriona Lucas and the Rescue 116 helicopter crash, which claimed four lives.
As The Sunday Independent reports, Chris Reynolds, who was director of the Irish Coast Guard from 2007 to 2016, says the State’s search and rescue section is “being blamed unfairly” for the deaths due to a failure to appoint a safety systems manager recommended by consultants four years before the two incidents.
Independent Clare TD Michael McNamara called for a statutory inquiry into Lucas’s death, stating that the recent inquest into her death had highlighted “a number of very disturbing features”.
Lucas (41), a mother of two and an advanced coxswain with Doolin Coast Guard, died after the rigid inflatable boat (RIB) she was crewing on with the neighbouring Kilkee unit capsized off the Clare coast on September 12th, 2016.
The week-long inquest at Kilmallock court, Co Limerick returned a verdict of misadventure and made seven recommendations relating to Coast Guard safety, management and training.
During the inquest, the Coast Guard’s failure to appoint a safety systems manager recommended in 2012, four years before Lucas’s death, was cited by her family’s legal team, as were internal difficulties within the Kilkee unit which had led to crewing shortages.
The inquest heard that Lucas, who had gone to help out the Kilkee unit in a search for a missing man, was conscious for 17 minutes in the water after the RIB capsized. Having lost her helmet on impact, she sustained a head injury and lost consciousness.
The inquest also heard that a second RIB with the Kilkee unit could have conducted a rescue within ten minutes if two of three crew available to launch it had not left the scene.
The inquest heard that a Health and Safety Authority (HSA) investigation was delayed for nine months by the Coast Guard, as it had questioned the HSA’s legal remit.
The HSA inspector was unable to inspect the safety equipment which Lucas had been wearing – including her helmet.
The inquest was told that her drysuit, which had filled with water, was destroyed rather than kept as evidence.
Reynolds told The Sunday Independent that he had asked to be interviewed by the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) and the HSA, both of which had investigated Lucas’s death, but was not given the opportunity
A Department of Transport spokesperson told the newspaper that following Ms Lucas’s death, the HSA and the MCIB conducted reviews and “the Irish Coast Guard has worked to implement the recommendations”. It has also accepted the recommendations of the recent inquest into her death.
Read The Sunday Independent here