Rescuers Confirm All 13 Norway Helicopter Crash Deaths

Rescue teams in Norway wrapped up their work at the site of the helicopter crash on Friday in which all 13 people on board were confirmed dead.

STOCKHOLM (Sputnik) – The previous toll in the crash of a helicopter flying from an offshore drilling platform in the North Sea to western Norway stood at 11 people.

The Eurocopter EC225 that crashed near Bergen was flying from "Gullfaks B" oil platformhttps://t.co/a8Oiff3AqD pic.twitter.com/DFVaF0cjOH

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) 29 апреля 2016 г.

"Rescue mission formally ended at 17:00 [15:00 GMT]. All 13 POB [persons on board] believed perished," the joint southern and northern Norway rescue coordination center tweeted.

Norway’s oil and gas company Statoil said the helicopter was en route from the Gullfaks oilfield’s B platform to the city of Bergen when it crashed.

Among the victims were 11 Norwegians, one British and one Italian national, according to Norwegian television.

Statoil grounded all Eurocopter 225 helicopters in 2012 after these helicopters had had a few emergency landings in Scotland and Shetland (archipelago of Scotland that lies northeast of the island of Great Britain). However, in 2013 they set the affected helicopters into traffic again.