A helicopter serving oil and gas rigs ditched in the North Sea today but all 14 people on board escaped unhurt into a liferaft, the coastguard and the aircraft's operators said.

The coastguard said the helicopter was forced to ditch into the North Sea 30 miles (48 kilometres) east of Aberdeen, the city in eastern Scotland which acts as a base for offshore oil and gas operations.

"Fourteen people on board have been confirmed to be in a liferaft and rescue units are now on scene," a coastguard statement added.

It said the helicopter had been heading from Aberdeen to the Maersk Resilient drilling platform and then to the ENSCO 102 platform when the pilots broadcast an alert that they had been forced to ditch.

A spokesman for the operators of the Super Puma helicopter, Bond Offshore, said it had made a "controlled descent" and had not crashed.

He said: "A low pressure oil warning light came on and the helicopter made a controlled descent and landed in the North Sea. It didn't crash."

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