A helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform crashed in the North Sea on Friday (April 29) killing at least 11 of the 13 people on
A helicopter ferrying passengers from a Norwegian oil platform crashed in the North Sea on Friday (April 29) killing at least 11 of the 13 people on board, rescue officials said.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
The rescue coordination centre said on Twitter that there were eleven passengers and two crew on board: all Norwegian except for one Briton and one Italian.
The area of the crash lies just west of Norway’s second largest city Bergen. It sees frequent air traffic to and from offshore oil platforms.
The Norwegian aviation authority said the model of aircraft that crashed, a Eurocopter EC225LP, was discovered to have issues in 2002 “when errors in the main gear box were identified” but that the manufacturer had since produced a modification that was approved by the European Aviation Safety Agency.
Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg said on Twitter the news of the crash was “horrible”.