LONDON // Sixteen people were feared dead today after a helicopter transporting them from an offshore oilfield crashed off the north-east coast of Scotland. Rescuers retrieved eight bodies from the North Sea after yesterday's crash but eight people remained missing after the search was called off at 10pm ? eight hours after the helicopter went down. The Scottish first minister Alex Salmond said late yesterday that the outlook for the missing was "extremely bleak."
About 15 vessels had been combing the area for survivors, but the search was called off until dawn today. "We can confirm that eight bodies have been recovered from the North Sea after a helicopter came down around 35 miles off the coast of Crimond," police said in a statement. "The remaining eight persons are unaccounted for," they said. Oil giant BP said the helicopter was operating on its behalf. Carrying 14 passengers and two crew, it had been flying from the Miller oilfield off the Scottish coast back to the mainland when it crashed.
It went down just before 2pm, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency said. Mr Salmond expressed shock and sadness at the accident, telling reporters in Aberdeen: "Eight bodies have been recovered and I am afraid to say the outlook for the other eight people involved is extremely bleak." He said the North Sea provided "enormous riches, millions, billions of pounds" in oil and gas. "But it's incidents like this that remind us that there is another price, and that's the price in human life, which has been played out over the years," he said.
Queen Elizabeth II sent a private letter of condolence to the families of the victims, a Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said. A BP spokesman said the firm was working closely with the coastguard and had put in place all its emergency response systems. The Super Puma helicopter was operated by offshore aviation firm Bond, which wasn't immediately available for comment. * AFP
