Source: ITAR-TASS
Link:
http://www.tass.ru/eng/level2.html?N...8115&PageNum=0
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Estonian witness says helicopter crashed into sea after 2 plops
11.08.2005, 01.12
TALLINN, August 10 (Itar-Tass) - Passenger helicopter crashed into the Baltic Sea after two loud plops that resembled explosions, an Estonian port pilot told the Tallinn-based Channel 2 television.
Matti Ojase, the captain of a port pilot boat, said he was in the area of Rohuneeme wharf east off Tallinn when he heard the two plops coming from the direction of the sea and saw the helicopter falling in a spin into seawater.
Ojase also said he did not notice any traces of smoke or fire.
The Sikorski helicopter belonging to the company Copterline fell into the Gulf of Finland between the Rohumee wharf located in the Tallinn Bay and Najssaar Island Wednesday afternoon.
The disaster that the claimed the lives of fourteen people, including Estonians, Finns and Americans, occurred minutes after the helicopter had taken off from a pad in Tallinn and started towards Helsinki, which lies on the opposite shore of the Gulf.
Toenis Lepp, Copterline’s executive director, said earlier a terrorist act might have been one of the causes of the disaster. He also indicated another two possible versions – bad weather and equipment failure aboard.
Rescue teams managed to locate an object resembling a helicopter on the seabed with the aid of sonar, and underwater footage made by a diver robot confirmed the supposition that it might be the perished Sikorski.
The final answer can be given, however, only after the object is recovered from the sea and taken up to the surface.