Crash questions remain

Officials of foreign embassies say they had been unable to gather information surrounding the deaths of seven oil rig workers.

ABU DHABI // Officials of foreign embassies said yesterday they had been unable to gather information about the events surrounding the deaths of seven workers in an oil rig helicopter crash off the coast of Dubai. The families of two of the victims spoke out publicly for the first time, saying the silence about the deaths of their loved ones had intensified their grief and they were still trying to find out what led to the crash.

The seven dead - the British helicopter pilot and his Venezuelan co-pilot, and the five passengers from India, the US, the Philippines and Pakistan - were working at an oil field owned by Dubai Petroleum when their Bell 212 aircraft crashed during take-off last Wednesday, smashing into a Maersk-owned oil rig 70km off the coast of Dubai. Some of the bodies were so badly burnt that they had to be identified by DNA tests.

A Dubai Petroleum spokesman said last night the government-owned company had nothing to do with the deaths. "We are not their employers. If the families are making complaints they should go to their employers," he said. A spokesman for Dubai Police said the crash was under investigation. A spokeswoman for the General Civil Aviation Authority added: "This is an ongoing matter and it will be at least two or three days before we have any findings."

She said the helicopter would have carried a black box that should have recorded the last moments of the flight, but would not say whether it had been recovered. Peter Pereira, 45, whose brother Julias was one of two Indians killed in the crash, said: "We feel isolated here and have no information about what is going on in Dubai. We are waiting for any news about the investigations or the body of my brother. This is a very disturbing time for us and things are worse because we are not getting any information."

Julias, 37, had been married for two years but left his wife in his native city of Pune, hoping to save money for their future by working at the oil field. He spent alternate months at home and had just begun a four-week stint in the Rashid oilfield on Tuesday. His younger brother Savio is preparing to fly to Dubai today to repatriate Julias's body. "We are all keeping a brave face but we do not know how we will react when we see the body," their older brother Peter said.

A spokeswoman for the Philippine consulate in Dubai said staff had been trying to get news for the family of Diosdado Buhangin, 48, an oil technician who had worked in Dubai for more than six years before his death in the crash. "We have tried to get information. It is very frustrating. I do not know if there has been a news blackout about this but no one knows or is saying anything," she said. Mr Buhangin's widow, Vilma, 48, had to break the news of his death to their five children aged 20, 14, 13, 11 and nine.

She was informed by a telephone call at her home outside Manila from Petroleum Network Services, a firm sub-contracted by Dubai Petroleum which recruited Mr Buhangin. "My eldest son was with me when I received the phone call. My youngest son still thinks my husband will be home for his birthday on Oct 20," Mrs Buhangin said. "Now I do not want to be alone in the house and do not know how I am going to bring up five children on my own.

"My husband has been positively identified now but I hope to travel to Dubai this week as I want to see his body first-hand before it arrives back home - as hard as that will be. He will always be remembered as a loving husband and a responsible father to our children. He paid for our house, our debts, our daily expenses and the children's schooling. I will be lost without him." Mrs Buhangin begged the Philippine Overseas Workers Welfare Administration and the department of foreign affairs for help in repatriating her husband's body.

She last saw him in August and spoke to him on the telephone hours before the crash. Petroleum Network Services is expected to pay the funeral expenses and her ticket to Dubai. A spokeswoman for the Indian consulate in Dubai said it had no official confirmation of the deaths of the Indian workers. "We have not been given any information at all. We are in touch with the company and as soon as it issues the names we will provide all assistance to the victims in repatriating bodies, but cannot do anything until they do so. Until then we will have to wait."

A spokesman for the Pakistani consulate said he had been given no information about the Pakistani victim. The British embassy said it had yet to make contact with relatives of Chris Brown, the dead British pilot. [e-mail]