By Xinhua,
London : All 18 people on board a British helicopter that crashed in the North Sea Wednesday evening have been saved in a dramatic rescue operation.
The Super Puma helicopter carrying workers to a British Petroleum (BP) oil production platform went down about 200km east of Aberdeen, northeast Britain, in heavy seas and poor visibility, the BBC reported.
The aircraft landed just 500 metres short of the platform and people on board the oil platform raised the alarm when they saw it plunge horizontally into the water, it said.
A Nimrod aircraft was dispatched by the Air Rescue Co-ordination Centre at RAF (Royal Air Force) Kinloss to help in the search, along with a rescue helicopter from RAF Lossiemouth, a coast-guard official said, adding that all 18 people on board the helicopter were rescued.
A full scale rescue operation was underway, with four helicopters involved.