16 still missing after chopper ditches in Atlantic

by nehalarya | March 12, 2009 at 06:23 pm

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The search will continue until at least Friday night for 16 people missing since Thursday morning when a helicopter carrying them to an offshore oil platform ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland, Canadian officials said.

One survivor, identified as Robert Decker, was found and taken to a hospital, but efforts to find more survivors had proven fruitless, said Maj. Denis McGuire of the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

The body of one person, who has not been identified publicly, also was pulled from the water. There were 18 people aboard the helicopter when it went down, about 30 nautical miles from St. John's.

"All we've got is the debris field," McGuire said. "There are no indications of any [more] survivors, but the search will continue."