Hope fades in UK crash search

Police forensic officers aboard the rig support vessel believed to be carrying the recovered bodies

GREAT YARMOUTH, England -- Hope is fading for six people still missing after a helicopter crashed in the North Sea, killing five others.

Coastguards told CNN on Wednesday that the number of search and rescue craft had been reduced to three vessels.

The operation, which is being co-ordinated by the coastguard at Great Yarmouth on the eastern English coast, is focused on an area of about 40-square miles.

The Sikorsky S76 helicopter, with 11 people on board, ditched in good weather some 30 miles north east of Cromer, near Great Yarmouth, at about 7.45 p.m. (1845 BST) on Tuesday.

Five bodies were found within two hours of the crash and rescue workers searched the area 25 miles north east of Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, throughout the night. Small pieces of wreckage have also been located.

The aircraft, operated by Bristow Helicopters, had been transferring oil rig personnel between the Shell-owned Santa Fe Monarch rig and a drilling rig.

Clive Mather, chairman of Shell UK, told reporters that the cause of the crash was not yet clear.

Rescuers launch a search vessel near the crash site.

"It's a tragic morning. The situation remains much the same," he said. "We've recovered five bodies which were found very shortly after the helicopter went down.

"The search has carried on throughout the night and we're still looking for the six remaining passengers.

"We simply don't know what happened. All we can say at the moment is that it is just a terrible accident."

Mather said Shell had suspended operations in the southern North Sea "while we assess what has happened".

The UK's Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has begun an investigation into the tragedy.

The aircraft contained flight data recorders which were being searched for but had not yet been found.

Seven boats, including two rig support vessels and a mixture of lifeboats and coastguard fast-response boats, and a RAF Sea King helicopter scoured a two-mile area where the helicopter came down in the hours after the crash.

By Wednesday morning that operation had been scaled down.

A spokesman for Great Yarmouth coastguard told CNN: "The full-scale search has been scaled down. We are currently using a buoy tender, the Patricia, in the search area and it will be joined later in the day by two fast rescue boats.

"A remote mini-submarine is also being used to hunt for any wreckage. The conditions are very calm at the moment, with a slight sea and good visibility."