Spotlight: 13 feared dead as helicopter crashes in North Sea

Eleven bodies have been found after a helicopter carrying 13 people crashed Friday in the North Sea off the western coast of Norway, rescue services said.

"The helicopter is completely destroyed. We do not believe anyone can be found alive," said Boerge Galta of the Joint Rescue Coordination Center of Southern Norway (JRCC).

The rescue operation was called off at 5 p.m. local time (1500 GMT) Friday after 11 bodies were found, but divers were still looking for the other two bodies.

The Super Puma helicopter with 11 Norwegians, one Briton and one Italian on board crashed near the island of Turoey, en route from the Gullfaks B oil platform in the North Sea operated by the state-owned Norwegian oil and gas company Statoil, to Bergen, Norway's second largest city, the rescue center said.

The helicopter's fuselage was found in the waters off Turoey, a tiny island outside Bergen, while its rotor system was on a rocky outcrop about 200 to 300 meters away, said Jon Sjursoe, also of the JRCC.

Several witnesses told Norwegian media that they saw the rotor blades separating from the helicopter while still in the air.

"While I looked up, the rotor (blades) loosened and disappeared toward the north," John Atle Sekkingstad was quoted by the local newspaper Bergens Tidende.

"After that, the helicopter turned north and I saw fire at the top of the helicopter, where the rotor had been attached. It caught fire before it crashed," he said.

Chris Andersen, an oil worker, told Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation NRK: "I saw the rotor separate ... It was horrible. There was a huge explosion that you could physically feel. You felt the vibrations."

Statoil said that it was a CHC-operated helicopter on assignment for the company. Canada-based CHC Helicopter is owned by a U.S. private equity firm First Reserve. Following the incident, Statoil has temporarily grounded all equivalent traffic helicopters and halted production at the Gullfaks B platform.

"This is one of the worst accidents in Norwegian oil history," said Arne Sigve Nylund, Statoil's head of production in Norway, adding that the helicopter passengers worked for different companies, but were all on assignments for Statoil.

"This is a heavy day ... Some of our colleagues will never come home," he said.

According to Norway's Accident Investigation Board, there have been few aviation accidents in the Scandinavian country that is one of the world's largest offshore oil producers.

Norway said late Friday that it had found the two "black box" flight recorders, one capturing data and the other recording cockpit conversations, and will send them to Britain, which has experience of handling such helicopter incidents.

Tracking service Flightradar24 said that the helicopter involved in Friday's crash dropped 640 m in the last 10 seconds.

Airbus Helicopters, a subsidiary of Airbus Group, said on Saturday that all commercial passenger flights of helicopters similar to the crashed Super Puma have been suspended.

Britain and Norway said that they have halted flights of the same type of helicopter, also known as the EC225LP.

"Under these tragic circumstances, and until these elements are available, we are allied with the decision taken to put all commercial EC225LP passenger flights on hold," the company said.

The four-bladed, twin-engine Super Puma utility helicopter was widely used in ferrying personnel and equipment to and from oil platforms in the North Sea oil industry. Endi