Six die in England as chopper crashes

Lancashire police and the Maritime 038; Coastguard Agency, said searchers had found six bodies in the bay within hours of the crash on Wednesday night.

8220;As each hour goes by, clearly the fears grow for the safety of anyone still in the water,8221; said Michael Mulford of the Royal Air Force Rescue Center as dawn broke on Thursday.

The helicopter was carrying five Centrica PLC employees and two crew members when it went down 39 km off the coast around 6:40 pm on Wednesday. It was not immediately known what caused the crash.

Mick Gradwell, Detective Superintendent for the Lancashire police, said the search was focusing around a drilling platform. He confirmed that all the bodies recovered so far had been of men.

He added several people aboard one of the rigs saw the Eurocopter AS365N crash into the sea, and they would be interviewed.

Jim Paton, operations manager for the coast guard at Holyhead, North Wales, said the bodies had been taken back to shore to be identified.

8220;The search for the missing person is still on,8221; he said, adding that visibility on the water was good, but that winds in the speed o around 25 knots were being experienced.

Centrica said it had contracted with CHC Helicopter Corp. to operate the aircraft. Police said the helicopter had traveled from Blackpool Airport and stopped at two different gas rigs and was on its way to a third when it went down.