All the country's rescue helicopters are to use a safer type of hoist hook after the whiplash of a snapped steel cable caused serious damage and forced a helicopter to leave a winchman on a lightship off Co Wexford and make for land.
The hoist cable snapped after it became snagged on the Conningbeg lightship off the Saltee Islands and the recoil smashed in the main rotor blades.
After ripping into the blades, the cable whipped the upper section of the cockpit canopy, smashing a four-inch hole into the pilot's overhead observation window. The centre windscreen was also broken.
Investigator Jurgen Whyte said the helicopter was on a training sortie from Waterford airport with three winchmen on board when the incident happened on January 17th. One was a female winchman under instruction.
The winchman on the lightship was later taken aboard a rubber inflatable from the naval vessel LE Orla and brought to Dunmore East. The winch operator was treated for a laceration injury to his hand.
