4 dead in North Sea helicopter crash off Scotland
A Brazilian Air Force Super Puma helicopter lands upon arrival at the Fernando de Noronha airport on June 11, 2009. A Super Puma helicopter carrying oil rig workers crashed in the North Sea off Scotland on Aug. 23, 2013, killing four people.
Four people were killed when a helicopter carrying oil rig workers lost power and plummeted into the North Sea off Scotland on Friday night.
Fourteen people were rescued following the crash near the Shetland islands, according to CNN.
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The dead were identified by the BBC on Saturday as Duncan Munro, 46, from Bishop Auckland, Sarah Darnley, 45, from Elgin, Gary McCrossan, 59, from Inverness, and George Allison, 57, from Winchester.
Officials lost contact with the Super Puma L2 helicopter at about 6:30 p.m. BST.
"There appears to have been a catastrophic loss of power which meant the helicopter suddenly dropped into the sea without any opportunity to make a controlled landing," rescue coordinator Jim Nicholson told The Associated Press.
Most of the passengers worked on the Borstein Dolphin oil and rig platform operated by offshore oil and gas company CHC.
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CHC officials declined to elaborate on what caused the crash, only saying they would fully cooperate with any investigation.
The crash was the latest among several in Scotland involving Super Puma helicopters.
Two such choppers ditched in the North Sea last year, with all the passengers rescued. One crashed while returning from a BP platform in 2009, killing 16 people, according to the AP.
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