Body recovered from chopper wreck

Police Scotland have confirmed that the body of the last remaining person has been recovered from the wreckage following the helicopter which came down near  Sumburgh on Friday.

The Coastguard tug Herakles, which headed from Orkney waters to Shetland, joined the offshore support vessel Bibby Polaris on the scene to recover the chopper.

Chief Inspector Angus MacInnes said: “The fourth person was recovered from the wreckage a short time ago and we have deployed family liaison officers to support those who have lost loved ones. We are also working with the industry to help support all of those affected.

“The North Sea is an extreme environment which has posed challenges for the recovery operation, not least the weather conditions which we have seen over the last 24 hours.

“Here in Shetland we are working with Police Scotland colleagues from across the country and partner agencies locally to ensure that the recovery operation is concluded as efficiently and effectively as possible.”

This brings the total number of bodies recovered to four, with two people remaining in hospital in Lerwick with non-life threatening injuries. A further 12 people were released from hospital and returned to Aberdeen on Saturday.

Helicopter operator CHC said that following the incident, in the UK, consistent with a request by the Helicopter Safety Steering Group and until further notice, the company will not fly AS332Ls/L1s/L2s and EC225s, aircraft except for life-saving SAR and medevac missions.  It was a Super Puma AS332L2 aircraft which was involved in the incident off Shetland.