Helicopter crash: Divers look for survivors

Estonian maritime rescue service divers are searching for survivors in the Baltic Sea after a helicopter with two pilots and 12 passengers crashed off the coast from the Estonian capital today.

The Sikorsky 76 helicopter was on a scheduled flight from Tallinn to Helsinki, Finland, when it went down for unknown reasons about three miles off the coast, the Estonian rescue service said.

There was no immediate word on casualties.

Finnish news agency STT, citing Estonian Embassy officials in Helsinki, said the passengers included six Finns, four Estonians and two US citizens. The nationality of the crew was not immediately known.

When rescuers arrived earlier today, the tail section of the chopper was sticking out of the water while the rest of the aircraft was submerged, said Mati Raidma, head of the Estonian rescue service.

The helicopter then sank completely, leaving only scattered debris floating on the water’s surface, rescuers said.

“We couldn’t find anybody, only debris,” Estonian rescue spokesman Aivar Muriks said, adding that divers were searching in water about 160-200ft deep.

“Apparently, the impact of the crash was quite hard,” he said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. A storm in the area caused operators to cancel the fast ferries between Tallinn and Helsinki.

Earlier today, fierce winds snapped the mast of a Polish sailboat in the Baltic Sea off the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad. Nine sailors were rescued and taken to hospital in Poland, while the search for a 10th sailor believed to be in the water was interrupted because of bad weather.