To answer an earlier question, I believe SAR in Ireland started using Night Vision Goggles about three or four years ago. Whether Irish SAR pilots would routinely have them lowered at this stage of flight is open to question. Some may have done, some may not. I don't think either of these pilots had a military background so flying offshore or close to the shore with their goggles lowered may not have seemed like the natural thing to do. Either way there should still have been FLIR and moving map back up from the rearcrew so the theory that Blackrock HLS could have been mistaken for Blacksod HLS seems a little far fetched.