The cause of Wednesday's crash was unclear, but Estonian Economy Minister Edgar Savisaar said technical problems might have been to blame, the Baltic News Service reported.
The U.S.-made Sikorsky S-76 went down three minutes after takeoff Wednesday on a commercial flight from Tallinn to Helsinki. On board were two Finnish pilots and 12 passengers from Finland, Estonia and the United States, officials said. No survivors were found.
Officials said the body of one of the pilots was lifted from the wreckage, which was resting on the seabed at a depth of 48 meters. Estonian police commander Robert Antropov said divers were not able to open the doors of the helicopter and had to lift the bodies through the shattered front windows. They could not confirm that all 14 bodies were inside the chopper, he said.
One of the Estonian passengers was Ruta Kruuda, the 38-year-old wife of Oliver Kruuda, who runs Estonian chocolate maker Kalev, company spokeswoman Ruht Roht said.
Copterline, the Finnish company that operated the helicopter, said one of the pilots was a 41-year-old former Finnish Frontier Guard airman, and the other, age 57, had served in the company for 10 years. Finnish media identified them Peter Fredriksson and Seppo Peurala.
In September 1994, Fredriksson headed a helicopter team that helped rescue people from the Estonia ferry that sank off the southwestern Finnish coast, killing 852 people, the Ilta-Sanomat tabloid reported.
A family member identified the two Americans on board as Lydia Riis Hamburgen, 86, of Rochester, Minnesota, and her daughter, Mary Elizabeth Hamburgen, 46, of Rolling Hills Estates, California. The two were in Estonia for a wedding, according to Arthur Hamburgen, Lydia's husband and Mary Elizabeth's father. The U.S. State Department could not confirm the information.
Five of the Finnish passengers were union officials or business leaders who had been in Tallinn for two days of talks. They were Matti Kopperi, 61, Marjut Ruotsalainen, 52, Pentti Vainio, 59, Ari Seger, 51, and Tapio Kuikko, 54, according to their employers. The sixth Finnish passenger was not identified.
The Estonian Interior Ministry identified the other three Estonians on board by first name and year of birth: Kristel, 1965, Liisa, 1983, and Carolina, 1983.
The cause of the crash was unclear. A storm in the area had caused the cancellation of ferries between Tallinn and Helsinki, but Interior Ministry spokeswoman Jaana Aduson said winds at the time and place of the helicopter crash were not that strong.
The chopper plunged into the water near the island of Naissaar, about 5 kilometers off the Estonian coast.
Mati Ojase, a pilot-boat skipper in the Rouhuneeme port, told Estonia's Kanal2 television he heard two bangs before seeing the helicopter nose-diving into the sea, the Baltic News Service reported. Ojase said he saw no smoke or fire.
U.S. officials said the National Transport Safety Board would provide assistance to Estonian and Finnish crash investigators.
Copterline, which resumed flights Thursday, has operated commercial helicopter flights across the 80-kilometer-wide Gulf of Finland since 2000 without any previous accidents. The crossing takes about 18 minutes.
A Message from The Moscow Times:
Dear readers,
We are facing unprecedented challenges. Russia's Prosecutor General's Office has designated The Moscow Times as an "undesirable" organization, criminalizing our work and putting our staff at risk of prosecution. This follows our earlier unjust labeling as a "foreign agent."
These actions are direct attempts to silence independent journalism in Russia. The authorities claim our work "discredits the decisions of the Russian leadership." We see things differently: we strive to provide accurate, unbiased reporting on Russia.
We, the journalists of The Moscow Times, refuse to be silenced. But to continue our work, we need your help.
Your support, no matter how small, makes a world of difference. If you can, please support us monthly starting from just $2. It's quick to set up, and every contribution makes a significant impact.
By supporting The Moscow Times, you're defending open, independent journalism in the face of repression. Thank you for standing with us.
Remind me later.