Irish Coast Guard volunteer Caitriona Lucas was conscious in the water for almost 17 minutes after the Coast Guard boat in which she was travelling capsized after it was hit by a huge wave during a search mission for a missing local man off Kilkee in Co Clare.
The inquest into the death of the mother-of-two, from Ballyvaughan, Co Clare, on Tuesday heard a May Day call was received from Ms Lucas (41) and her colleagues, Jenny Carway and James Lucey, at 1.11pm on September 12th, 2016.
Clare Civil Defence member Stephen Hayes told how he went to the scene and put up a drone to try and get visuals on the three crew of the Rigid Inflatable Boat (RIB). He saw Ms Carway swimming away from the boat out to sea while the other two were washed in under the cliffs.
He said he saw Mr Lucey, who had climbed on a ledge where he was being partially covered by waves. He saw Ms Lucas hanging on to the bow of the RIB after it came back out from under the cliffs, and she hung on to the bow of the boat in strong surf until she lost consciousness at almost 1.28pm.
Irish Coast Guard volunteer Gary Kiely said that the Kilkee Coast Guard Unit had been short of members at the time after a number of volunteers left. Just three days before the tragedy, the unit had met to discuss the matter with Irish Coast Guard management.
Mr Kiely suggested at the meeting on September 9th that they should look at approaching some experienced members who had left the unit to return. Management didn’t think it was necessary given the time of year but promised to revisit the issue.
A librarian, Ms Lucas was a volunteer with the Doolin Coast Guard unit and had offered to assist the Kilkee Unit in the search. When Michael Kingston, solicitor for Ms Lucas’s husband Bernard, put it to Mr Kiely that it was the shortage of volunteers in Kilkee that led to Ms Lucas being involved in the operation, Mr Kiely agreed.
Mr Kiely said that local knowledge was also important, as the tide could often come around the headland into Lookout Bay with swells breaking into high waves. It was important that a RIB would be faced into the wave so as to ride it and avoid being hit broadside by the breaking water.
Martony Vaughan, who had just stepped down as Officer in Charge of the Kilkee Coast Guard Unit and who had attended the scene, agreed with Mr Kingston that there was no Irish Coast Guard presence on the water at the scene for a period until the Shannon-based helicopter, Rescue 115, arrived at 1.38pm. It was the helicopter that plucked Ms Lucas from the water at 1.41pm.
Ms Lucas was in a critical condition and was airlifted to University Hospital Limerick but was pronounced dead. It took several hours before Mr Lucey was winched to safety by Rescue 115 as he remained trapped near the base of the cliffs. Ms Carway had been rescued by a civilian RIB.
Kilkee Coast Guard Unit volunteer Chris Kearns said he was shocked to learn in the Marine Casualty Investigation Board report into the Kilkee tragedy that another Coast Guard RIB had capsized off Dingle in Co Kerry in 2014 when it had entered a sea with heavy surf. He said that he had carried out a monthly check on the Delta RIB just days earlier on September 9th. The boat’s radar was not working as it had been disconnected some time earlier as it was thought it was interfering with the boat’s VHF radio.
The inquest before a jury of four men and three women and Limerick coroner John McNamara continues at Kilmallock Courthouse and is expected to last a number of days.
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