The Transportation Safety Board believes 10 or more bodies are inside the wreckage of the Sikorsky S-92 helicopter that crashed into the cold waters of the North Atlantic, off the coast of Newfoundland.
Before Sunday, only one body had been found.
The TSB located the fuselage of the chopper on Saturday, which is sitting 180 metres below the surface. Investigators used a camera to search the wreckage.
Of the 18 people who were aboard the helicopter when it crashed last Thursday, only one man, 30-year-old Robert Decker, is confirmed to have survived. He remained in stable but critical condition in a St. John's hospital this weekend, unable to talk to investigators about the tragic incident.
Following the crash, authorities recovered the body of Allison Maher, 26. She is believed to have been the only woman aboard the helicopter at the time of the crash.
An additional body has since been recovered from the wreckage using a remote operated vehicle, lead investigator Mike Cunningham said Sunday.
"We have an ROV which extracts the bodies one at a time and puts it into a basket, which is lifted to the surface," Cunningham told reporters.
He said the remains may be removed from the wreckage within 24 hours, barring any unforeseen challenges.
The following is a list of 14 names the RCMP have publicly identified as being aboard the helicopter at the time of the crash:
- Thomas Anwyll, 46, Langley, B.C.
- Peter Breen, 55, St. John's
- Gary Corbett, 46, Conception Bay, N.L.
- Wade Drake, 42, Fortune, N.L.
- Wade Duggan, 32, Witless Bay, N.L.
- Corey Eddy, 32, Paradise, N.L.
- Colin Henley, 38, St. John's
- Tim Lanouette, 48, of Comox, B.C.
- Ken MacRae, 47, Greenwood, N.S.
- Derrick Mullowney, 51, Bay Bulls, N.L.
- Burch Nash, 44, Fortune, N.L.
- John Pelley, 41, Deer Lake, N.L.
- Paul Pike, 49, Spaniard's Bay, N.L.
- Allison Maher, 26, Aquaforte, N.L. (confirmed deceased)
The crash
The helicopter, operated by Cougar Helicopters, was ferrying workers to the Hibernia and Sea Rose oil platforms when it reported mechanical problems during its flight on Thursday morning. It turned back towards St. John's, issued a distress call and plunged into the water eight minutes later.
Search efforts ended on Friday evening after officials said "the likelihood of finding survivors is no longer there."
There were some questions raised about how quickly the Canadian military responded, amid reports that the search and rescue helicopters used were busy on a training mission at the time of the crash. But officials said the training exercise didn't jeopardize search and rescue efforts and didn't result in delays.
As investigators methodically worked to remove all of the bodies, a father waiting for his son's remains to come home called the ordeal "brutal."
Frank Henley lost his son, Colin, in the crash and must now wait for the painstaking recovery task to finish.
"It's very difficult, very difficult. To have him back would at least take that emptiness away, or reduce it anyway," Henley told The Canadian Press in an interview from his home in St. John's.
"You'd have something to hang onto. The waiting is brutal."
Colin Henley, 38, was once a real estate broker who retrained for a career as a weather observer with Provincial Aerospace Ltd.
The doomed chopper flight was his first trip to the offshore platform, the father said Sunday.
With files from The Canadian Press
