Divers began retrieving bodies yesterday from a Finnish helicopter carrying 14 people that crashed into the sea off Estonia, in the country's worst ever aviation accident.

The first body recovered was one of the Finnish pilots, rescuers told a news conference in the Estonian capital of Tallinn.

Once the second pilot is recovered, divers will move in through the cabin, retrieving the remaining passengers.

The twin-engined Sikorsky S-76 is lying 40 meters underwater on the seabed after crashing minutes after takeoff on Wednesday on a regular commercial flight from Tallinn to Helsinki.

The efforts of rescue helicopters, boats and divers from Estonia and Finland to recover those on board - six Finnish passengers, two Finnish crew, four Estonians and two Americans - were postponed until yesterday because of strong winds and waves several meters high.

"We have brought up a body, a pilot," said Harry Hein, head of the Estonian Border Guards, in charge of the recovery.

The helicopter suddenly dived into the choppy sea near the island of Naissaar, during rough weather in the Baltic, though the Finnish helicopter company involved, Copterline, has ruled out bad weather as a factor in the crash.

An Estonian official said Interior Minister Kalle Laanet had ruled out a bomb as the cause of the crash and that technical problems or an accident could be behind it.

A family member identified the two Americans on board as Lydia Riis Hamburgen, 86, of Rochester, Minnesota, and her daughter, Mary Elizabeth Hamburgen, 46, of Rolling Hills Estates, California.

One of the Estonian passengers was Ruta Kruuda, the 38-year-old wife of Oliver Kruuda, who runs Estonian chocolate maker Kalev AS, company spokeswoman Ruht Roht said. The Interior Ministry identified the other three Estonians by first name and year of birth: Kristel, 1965, Liisa, 1983, and Carolina, 1983.

Five of the Finnish passengers were union officials or business leaders who had been in Tallinn for two days of talks. They were Matti Kopperi, 61, Marjut Ruotsalainen, 52, Pentti Vainio, 59, Ari Seger, 51, and Tapio Kuikko, 54, according to their employers. The sixth Finnish passenger was not identified.

Copterline said one of the pilots was a 41-year-old former Finnish Frontier Guard airman, and the other, age 57, had served in the company for 10 years. Finnish media identified them as Peter Fredriksson and Seppo Peurala.

(China Daily August 12, 2005)