A Canadian Forces CH-149 Cormorant helicopter operates above the vessel Maersk Nascopi earlier today during the search for survivors after a Cougar Sikorsky S 92 ditched into the Atlantic Ocean some 47 nautical miles southeast of St. John's, Newfoundland.The Cougar helicopter was moving passengers from the mainland to an Hibernia oil rig approximately 170 nautical miles from St John's; 18 persons were reported on board. Military and civilian aircraft have been searching the scene as well as two Coast Guard vessels and two commercial vessels operating on the surface One survivor and one deceased have been confirmed. The search is expected to continue through the night. Canada has one the best search and rescue systems in the world and everything possible is being done in the search for survivors of the ditched helicopter. Photograph by: Sergeant Steve Rutt, 413 Squadron, Canadian Forces
Edmonton - A 47-year-old employee of Edmonton company FGG Inspections was aboard a helicopter that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland last week.
Ken MacRae was a senior analyst technician heading out to Husky Energy’s Sea Rose offshore oil drilling facility Thursday to do an inspection, FGG general manager Ron Gulliver said from Newfoundland on Saturday.
MacRae once lived in Fort Saskatchewan, Global News Edmonton learned. Most recently, he worked out of the company’s Edmonton head office but kept his home in Greenwood, Nova Scotia.
He had a wife and four children.
“His family’s having a real rough time,” said Gulliver, speaking on their behalf.
“I’ve known Kenny for a long, long time,” he said, adding they were good friends before MacRae joined the tight-knit company about five years ago.
“It’s a great loss to all of us,” Gulliver said. “We were all best friends. We’re all just trying to cope with this.”
At work, MacRae was a “highly capable” leader. In his downtime, he was a laid-back outdoorsman who especially loved to hunt and fish, Gulliver said.
Before joining FGG, he served with the Canadian Air Force as a mechanical inspector.
Eighteen people were in the helicopter when it went down. One man survived, and the body of Allison Maher, a 26-year-old woman from Newfoundland, was recovered Thursday.
On Saturday, RCMP in Newfoundland identified MacRae and 10 others as victims of the crash.
Those who have been identified are: First Officer Tim Lanouette, 48, of Comox, B.C.; Thomas Anyll, 46, of Langley, B.C.; Peter Breen, 55, of St. John’s; Gary Corbett, 46, of Conception Bay South, N.L.; Wade Drake, 42, of Fortune, N.L., Wade Duggan, 32, of Witless Bay, N.L.; Colin Henley, 38, of St. John’s; Derrick Mullowney, 51, of Bay Bulls, N.L.; Burch Nash, 44, of Fortune, N.L.; and Paul Pike, 49, of Spaniard’s Bay, N.L.
RCMP spokesman Reg Reeves it was a partial list, but some families still haven’t agreed to publicly release the names of missing loved ones.
“A lot of those people . . . I’ve seen their faces every morning,” said Cougar Helicopters base operations manager Hank Williams.
Cougar is contracted to transport workers to and from Newfoundland’s offshore oilfields.
“There’s some there that I think have been at the facility as long as I have been involved in the offshore work here,” Williams said.
In a funeral notice in the St. John’s Telegram Saturday, Allison Maher’s family said the young woman “died tragically . . . Leaving to mourn parents Richard and Marjorie Maher, brother Brian (Melissa), grandmother Madeline Maher, boyfriend Greg Matthews and many aunts and uncles and her co-workers on The Sea Rose and many friends and relatives.”
“She was a beautiful girl,” said 62-year-old Anita Armstrong, who lives in Witless Bay with some members of Maher’s family.
Armstrong said there was a pall over the villages along the coast.
“Now the thing is they’ve got to find the bodies, before there’s any release,” Armstrong said. “It’s like a cloud over the place. There’s nobody talking very much about it.”
Only Maher’s body has been found so far, but a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, which is now spearheading the investigation, said recovering those bodies is a priority.
“It’s very important for us to bring that kind of closure to retrieve the bodies and give them to their loved ones,” said Charles Laurence, TSB’s lead investigator of operations.
He said investigators Saturday were examining sonar images of the wreckage to determine how best to raise the helicopter from where it lies 120 metres underwater.
“The structure of the aircraft, the body of the aircraft seems to be in relatively solid state. The tail section has broken off and it is lying by the side of the aircraft which is not a problem,” Laurence said. “We are still evaluating how it’s going to be brought to the surface but we believe it should be done relatively easily, possibly in a couple of days.”
Laurence said lifting the helicopter may take place as early as Monday, but the retrieval has to proceed with extreme caution.
“You don’t want to lose parts, and you want to make sure you keep the integrity of the cabin and its contents,” he said. “We’re also very eager to find out what went wrong.... The recorders, both the data and the voice recorders, are really an important step in investigating an aircraft accident like this.”
The goal will be to lift the whole of the fuselage as one piece, before bodies can be removed.
Transportation Safety Board investigator Mike Cunningham said he expects the missing 16 passengers are still strapped inside the Sikorsky S-9.
“They’re very securely fastened inside the fuselage..” he said. “They actually have five-point harnesses on. So unless they were able to release those harnesses . . . the bodies may still be within the fuselage.
“This is certainly what we’re hoping for. Because we want to be able to recover those bodies for the families.”
The lone survivor of the crash, Robert Decker of St. John’s, was pulled from the water where the helicopter went down about 45 minutes after the crash.
He remains in hospital in St. John’s in critical but stable condition, with salt in his lungs, a broken bone and hypothermia.
“He was revived for a period of time on Friday and showed awareness of his surroundings and the family members who were with him,” his family said in a statement released Saturday.
“However, the ventilator prevented him from speaking. He continues to be heavily sedated and in stable, but critical, condition.”
bgelinas@thejournal.canwest.com
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Sikorsky S-92: detail of rotor  
The fuselage of the Sikorsky S92 helicopter that crashed in the  on Friday has been found at a depth 120 to 150 meters and is being retrieved. 17 of the 18 people who were on board the helicopter died after it crashed.

Personal belongings, upper and lower segments of the main entrance door, the aft cargo door, and one emergency exit door have been recovered.  “We totally dissect everything we can and certainly that is going to be an area that will be examined," said Mike Cunningham, lead investigator with the Transportation Safety Board (TSB). "It looks like the fuselage is relatively intact." An underwater  (ROV) is aiding in the investigation.

“The structure of the aircraft, the body of the aircraft seems to be in relatively solid state. The tail section has broken off and it is lying by the side of the aircraft which is not a problem.  We are still evaluating how it’s going to be brought to the surface but we believe it should be done relatively easily, possibly in a couple of days,” said Charles Laurence, TSB’s lead investigator of operations. 

The remaining victims may still be strapped within their five-point harnesses.

The mayday to Transport Canada aviation database reported oil pressure in the main gearbox which caused the problem.  The gearbox links the engines and transmission and is located on the top of the fuselage and under the main rotor head.

Robert Decker remains in critical at the St. John's Health Sciences Centre but has stabilised.  It is reported that he suffered a broken bone, hypothermia and had aspirated sea water.

The recovered body is that of Allison Maher from Aquaforte, , aged 26. Throughout the search and rescue there were no locator signals received from survival suits of any of those missing.

The  (RCMP) have released the names of twelve of those who are are still missing. It is a partial list, as some relatives were "not prepared at this point of time to release the names of their loved ones, and we respect that," said Supt. Reg Reeves. 

They are:
*Peter Breen, from  age 55;
*Gary Corbett, from  age 46;
*Wade Drake, from  age 42;
*Wade Duggan, from  age 32;
*Colin Henley, from St. John's, N.L. age 38;
*Ken MacRae, from  age 47;
*Derrick Mullowney, from  age 51;
*Burch Nash, from  Fortune, N.L. age 44;
*Paul Pike, from   age 49;
*Allison Maher,from  , age 26
*Tim Lanouette, from  , helicopter first officer age 48; and
*Thomas Anwyll, from   Crew member age 46.