A second salvage vessel has been deployed to the scene of a helicopter crash in the North Sea as efforts to locate its flight recorder continued. Skip related content
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Air accident inspectors are carrying out investigations off the Aberdeenshire coast where the Super Puma helicopter came down, killing its 14 passengers and two crew.
The accident happened on Wednesday afternoon as the aircraft returned from a BP oil platform. The eight bodies which have so far been recovered were shipped to Aberdeen on Thursday.
A search for the eight remaining bodies has been stood down, after police said there was no hope of finding any survivors.
The vessel Vigilant was chartered by air accident investigators and has been at the crash site since Friday morning.
It is carrying specialist sonar equipment which is being used to locate the wreckage and remove it from the seabed.
The second vessel was also commissioned as part of the salvage operation.
A spokesman from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said: “This is a complicated investigation which is drawing on expertise from different sectors and several agencies will continue working together.
“The investigation continues with work under way to salvage the wreckage and combined Cockpit Voice and Flight Data Recorder.”
Grampian Police have confirmed the identities of four of the eight men whose bodies were recovered.
They were KCA Deutag employees Raymond Doyle, 57, of Cumbernauld and Nairn Ferrier, 40, of Dundee.
Also identified were Stuart Wood, 27, of Aberdeen, who worked for Expro North Sea Ltd, and Warren Mitchell, 38, of Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire.
The other men who died in the crash were KCA Deutag employees James Edwards, 33, of Liverpool; Nolan Goble, 34, of Norwich; Gareth Hughes, 53, of Angus and David Rae, 63, of Dumfries; Leslie Taylor, 41, of Kintore, Aberdeenshire; Mihails Zuravskis, 39, of Latvia; and Brian Barkley, 30, and Vernon Elrick, 41, both of Aberdeen.
James Costello, 25, of Aberdeen, who worked for contractor PSN and Sparrow Offshore Services employee Alex Dallas, 62, of Aberdeen, also died.
The pilots were named as captain Paul Burnham, 31, of Methlick, Aberdeenshire; and co-pilot Richard Menzies, 24, of Droitwich Spa in Worcestershire. Both were employed by Bond Offshore.
Grampian Police said its work to identify the four other recovered bodies remains “of the highest priority”.