Captain Dara Fitzpatrick has been remembered through an engraving made on the side of a British helicopter calling her “Queen of the Skies”.
Niamh Fitzpatrick, Dara’s sister, took to Twitter to share photos of the Sea King Helicopter, which bears Dara’s name and ‘Banríon na Spéartha’, the Irish translation of ‘Queen of the Skies’. “How lovely to see the Sea King helicopter named after Dara in flight. You can just about make out her name on the side,” Niamh captioned underneath the image.
Dara was tragically killed on March 14 2017 after her Rescue 116 helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the Mayo coast. She was the most senior of the Irish Coast Guard’s search and rescue pilots at the time of her death.
