As the full inquest into the death of Irish Coast Guard volunteer Caitríona Lucas continued on Tuesday (28 November), two survivors of the RIB capsize off Co Clare which claimed her life have described how the three were tossed into the sea.
The Irish Independent reports that survivor Jenny Carway told the inquest that had Lucas’ helmet not been ripped off by a freak wave, she might have survived the incident.
Fellow survivor James Lucey told the full inquest held by Limerick coroner John McNamara at Kilmallock courthouse that the sea was “like a washing machine”.
As Afloat.ie reported, Lucas, a 41-year old librarian and mother of two, died after a Kilkee Coast Guard RIB capsized during a search for a missing man on 12 September 2016.
The highly experienced member of Doolin Coast Guard, who had been assisting the neighbouring unit at Kilkee in the search, was the first Irish Coast Guard volunteer to lose her life during a tasking.
When she was recovered from the sea by helicopter, having lost consciousness, she was not wearing her helmet, her lifejacket was not fully inflated and she had sustained an injury to her head.
The coroner and a jury of four men and three women were told that the Kilkee unit were short of volunteers for sea operations that day and had asked assistance from the Doolin unit.
The Kilkee RIB with Lucas, James Lucey and Jenny Carway approached Lookout Bay and Intrinsic Bay near Kilkee around 1pm on 12 September 2016.
The inquest was told that the crew had not been made aware of the fact that Intrinsic Bay could witness “peculiar” waves — and that vessels reversed into the inlet for safety reasons.
They were also unaware of any specific dangers posed by the waters involved, with sea conditions much better than the previous day.
Lucey said they were “moving along slowly” when they were hit by a wall of water and the RIB capsized. He was able to clamber onto a rock, was swept off, but then managed to reach a ledge in a sea cave which he was later rescued from.
He described seeing Lucas floating on her back with her face upwards, shouted to her to try to stand, and then saw her floating face down in the water when he looked again.
“Caitríona shouted ‘breaking wave’. I barely got to move my head around when I saw the water,” the newspaper quoted Jenny Carway as telling the inquest.
Carway managed to keep her helmet but the helmets of Lucey and Lucas had been ripped off by the force of the water. She described how her helmet was loose-fitting but she had used an inflatable bladder to tighten it and firmly adjusted the chin strap.
“It [the helmet] could have been the difference between her being here today and not,” Carway told the inquest.
Marine expert Michael Kingston, representing the Lucas family, put it to Carway that drone rescue footage which has been made available to the inquest shows what happened to Lucas without her helmet.
“Ms Lucas can be seen [on the drone footage] being struck by the boat and rocks, rendering her unconscious,” he said.
Read the Irish Independent HERE.