More bodies recovered from North Sea crash

Police recovered seven more bodies yesterday from the wreckage of a helicopter that crashed in the North Sea on Wednesday, killing all 16 people on board.

Grampian police said one body now remained unrecovered.

The Super Puma helicopter with two crew was ferrying 14 oil workers from a BP offshore oil rig when it went down in fine weather 11 miles off the northeast coast of Scotland on Wednesday afternoon.

It was the second Super Puma crash in the North Sea in six weeks. In February, all 18 on board a Super Puma travelling to a BP oil rig were rescued after it went down into the sea after hitting a fog bank.

Both aircraft were operated by Bond Offshore Helicopters, which runs a fleet of Super Puma twin-engined helicopters to supply sea-based oil rigs.

BP said it had decided to discontinue using Bond for the moment to allow the company's other helicopter pilots time to reflect on the loss of two colleagues.