YoTube News: Smoke rising from blazing helicopter crash site in Norway
British man among at least 11 people killed when helicopter carrying oil workers crashes in Norway
- Helicopter carrying 13 people crash on island in western Norway
- Police have recovered 11 bodies, with two people still missing
- A British national, an Italian and 11 Norwegians were on board
- Eyewitnesses describe ‘violent explosion’ before the crash
A British man has been killed in a helicopter crash that claimed at least 11 lives in western Norway on Friday, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
The helicopter was carrying 11 passengers and two pilots from an offshore oil platform in the North Sea when it came down on the small island of Turoey, near Bergen.
At least 11 people have been found dead at the crash site, with two still unaccounted for, a spokesman for Norway’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre (JRCC) said.
The Brit, an Italian and 11 Norwegians were on board the Eurocopter EC-225 helicopter when it crashed on its way back from the Gullfaks B oil platform, operated by Statoil, in the North Sea.
An Foreign and Commonwealth Office spokesman said: ‘We have offered our support to the family of a British national who has sadly died in a helicopter crash in Bergen, Norway.
‘Our thoughts are with all those affected. We will remain in contact with local authorities.’
‘The helicopter is completely destroyed,’ a spokesman forthe Rescue Coordination Centre for Southern Norway said. ‘Rescueservices are doing all they can to find people alive.‘
‘We have not yet found any survivors. We are still looking,’the local police official coordinating operations, MortenKronen said.
Mr Kronen said that there were ‘reports of an explosion and thick smoke’ and that there were people in the sea.
