Captain Dara Fitzpatrick has died this afternoon, after a helicopter carrying three other crew members went missing last night. 

Captain Fitzpatrick had been with the search and rescue service for 20 years.

She was found a number of hours ago in critical condition, and was later pronounced dead in hospital. 

“Dara is one of the most senior pilots with CHC, she has been with the company close on 20 years,” rescue operations manager Gerard O’Flynn told the Irish Times.

“Outside of her work as a pilot, she did an enormous amount of work in water safety and was always available to do school visits and just highlight basic water safety,” he said.

The search continues off the west coast of Ireland for the rest of the crew. 

The search is focused on the Mayo coastline in the Blacksod area. 

Contact was lost with the helicopter at around 1am last night.