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Helicopter carrying at least 13 people crashes near Bergen in Norway Helicopter carrying 13 crashes off Norwegian coast
(about 1 hour later)
A helicopter has crashed off the western coast of Norway with local media reporting that 13 to 17 people were on board. Norwegian authorities say they have not yet found any survivors after a helicopter carrying 11 oil workers and two crew members crashed off the west coast near Bergen.
Several witnesses described seeing and hearing a powerful explosion, and people were seen in the sea, television station TV2 reported, adding that some people had been rescued. The helicopter came down near the island of Turøy while en route to the mainland from Statoil’s Gullfaks B oil platform in the North Sea.
“Emergency services en route to a zone near Turøy after reports of a helicopter crash,” Norwegian police said on Twitter, referring to an island off the western city of Bergen. Live television footage showed leisure boats rushing towards the crash scene, from where thick black smoke was billowing into the sky.
First reports indicated the helicopter was transporting workers to an offshore oil field in the North Sea. The area just west of Bergen, Norway’s second largest city, sees frequent helicopter traffic to and from offshore oil installations. Morten Kronen, a spokesman for the region’s police force, said there were reports of an explosion and thick smoke. The helicopter “has crashed, it is totally smashed”, he said. Authorities were searching a wide area of the sea for survivors.
Live television footage showed leisure boats rushing toward the scene of the crash, where thick black smoke was billowing into the sky. Rebecca Andersen, a witness, told the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang that the helicopter’s “rotor blades came rushing toward us. Then we heard a violent explosion.”
The area just west of Bergen, Norway’s second largest city, sees frequent helicopter traffic to and from offshore oil installations.
Statoil said it had temporarily grounded all helicopters of the type that crashed, an Airbus H225 Super Puma. The Norwegian prime minister, Erna Solberg, wrote on Twitter about the “horrifying reports” and said she was being kept informed about the rescue work.