All 11 passengers and two crew members were killed as a helicopter carrying people from a Statoil-operated oil and gas field offshore Norway crashed on its way to Bergen on Norway’s west coast.
The CHC helicopter went down around noon near Turoey, outside Bergen, coming back from the Gullfaks B platform. Official rescue operations ended at 5 p.m. local time and all have been confirmed dead, according to Norway’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center.
It was the first deadly flight accident in Norway’s offshore industry since 1997, when a helicopter on its way to the Norne field crashed in the Norwegian Sea, killing all 12 onboard. The latest fatality in the industry happened in December, when one person was killed after a wave crashed into a rig contracted by Statoil.
The rotor blade of the helicopter, a Eurocopter 225, was found on land while the hull was under water at a depth of 6 meters to 7 meters, according to John Sjursoe, a spokesman for the rescue center.