COPENHAGEN – A search continued Saturday for the two missing bodies from the crash of Airbus EC-225 helicopter off western Norway, killing all 13 people on board.
Police spokesman Per Angel said they also were working on identifying the 11 victims found so far.
The helicopter carrying workers from an offshore rig in the North Sea went down on Turoey, a tiny island outside Bergen, Norway’s second-largest city. Eleven Norwegians, one Briton and one Italian were aboard the aircraft that went down for unknown reasons.
Statoil said the 11 passengers were employed by Houston-based Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger N.V., Norwegian firms Aker Solutions and Karsten Moholt and Danish robotics company Welltec, and Statoil. The two pilots were CHC Helicopter staff. No further details were available.
READ MORE: Flying ban issued after CHC helicopter crashes in Norway, killing 13 people
The Airbus EC-225LP helicopter was en route from the Statoil-operated Gullfaks B oil field, 74 miles (120 kilometres) off the Norwegian coast, when it crashed en route to Flesland Airport, Bergen.
Norway TV2 channel aired a footage said to show what seems to be a helicopter rotor spiraling down minutes before the helicopter crashed. The rotor was found on land, hundred meters (yards) from the fuselage that crashed as sea.
In France, Airbus Helicopters said two technical experts had been sent to Norway to assist in the investigation.
The Norwegian Civil Aviation Authority says the helicopter’s flight recorders would be sent Saturday to Britain where data from the so-called black boxes would be read.
On Friday, the agency banned such helicopters from flying in Norway or near Norwegian offshore facilities. Airbus Helicopters said in a statement that it was “allied with the decision taken to put all commercial EC-225LP passenger flights on hold.”
Britain’s Civil Aviation Authority said Saturday all commercial passenger flights using the Airbus EC-225LP helicopter have been grounded. That decision didn’t apply to search and rescue flights, it said.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg, Norwegian Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit were expected to visit the next-of-kin in Bergen later Saturday.
Because of the crash, King Harald and Queen Sonja cancelled a trip to neighbouring Sweden. They were to take part in the celebrations marking King Carl XVI Gustaf’s 70th birthday.
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