Navy divers have attached lifting equipment to the wreckage of the coastguard helicopter submerged off Mayo.
Search teams want to move the aircraft in their search for two missing crew men.
The bodies of captain Dara Fitzpatrick and Mark Duffy have been recovered since the crash over two weeks ago.
But the remains of winchmen Ciarán Smith and Paul Ormsby have yet to be found.
The Irish Coastguard's search and rescue operations manager Gerard O'Flynn says progress is being made:
