UAE | General
Seven killed as helicopter crashes off coast of Dubai
The bodies of all seven people killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of Dubai have been recovered, according to police sources.
- By Wafa Issa and Shakir Hussain, Staff Reporters
- Published: 11:57 September 4, 2008
- Image Credit: Konstantin von Wedelstaedt
- The Aerogulf Bell 212 helicopter was carrying 7 people (picture for illustrative purposes only).
Dubai: The bodies of all seven people killed in a helicopter crash off the coast of Dubai have been recovered, according to police sources.
The source added that two of the bodies were "charred and we need to conduct DNA tests to identify them''
Earlier on Thursday, Maj Gen Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina, Deputy Chief of Dubai Police confirmed that the helicopter crashed while taking off from Rashid oil field in Dubai, killing all seven people on board.
Petrofac, the international oil and gas facilities service provider, confirmed in a statement that the Aerogulf Bell 212 helicopter, which was carrying two crew members and five passengers, crashed at 8:20 PM last night 70 kilometres off Dubai's shore.
The helicopter crashed into the Maersk drilling rig, broke up and fell into the sea.
Dubai's civil aviation authority confirmed that an American, a Briton - believed to be the captain - a Pakistani, a Filipino, a Venezuelan and two Indians were killed in the crash.
Immediately following the incident, a fire broke out on the main deck of the drilling rig which was quickly contained and extinguished.
Emergency response vessels and aircraft were mobilised and incident management control measures were immediately initiated in co-operation with the Dubai Police and Coastguard, the statement said.
"By 01:30 hours on Thursday, September 4, it was confirmed that there were no survivors, and that there were no additional casualties on either the drilling rig or the platform. All operations on the Rashid field have been suspended and the platform and drilling rig have been secured,'' it read.
The deceased were contractor personnel, not Petrofac employees.
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An accident investigation has been initiated with Dubai Police and the Dubai General Aviation Authority.
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