The flight recorder of the passenger helicopter that crashed into the Gulf of Finland on Wednesday soon after taking off from the Estonian capital Tallinn en route to Helsinki has been recovered. It will probably be sent to Britain for analysis. Neither Estonia nor Finland have the technical capacity to study the "black box".
Original plans were to send it to the United States, but Estonia’s State Prosecutor Andres Ülviste felt that Britain would be a more neutral location. He noted that the helicopter was manufactured by a large US company, Sikorsky, a subsidiary of the even larger United Technologies Company. Kirsi Lattu, a spokeswoman for the State Prosecutor’s office, emphasised that there was no suggestion that the manufacturer would have tried to influence the investigation. "The purpose was simply to prevent the speculation that sending the black box to the United States might have caused. Meanwhile, Finnish coast guard units have suspended their search for a missing crew member. The bodies of all of the other 13 people on board - 12 passengers and one crew member - have been recovered.
The wreckage of the stricken helicopter was raised to the surface on Saturday, and is being examined at Tallinn Airport. Members of the commission of inquiry said that the helicopter did not show any outward signs that would have indicated a cause for the crash.
"Only weather conditions have been ruled out. The weather was good", said the commission’s chairman Taivo Kivistik on Saturday.
Kivistik said that terrorism was still an option under investigation.
An initial report on the causes of the accident is expected by September 10th.
