Sole survivor may soon provide chopper crash answers: RCMP

The only person to survive when an offshore oil helicopter crashed hard into the Atlantic Ocean last week is expected to soon be well enough to answer investigators' questions, police said Monday.

Robert Decker was put on life support at the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's last Thursday, shortly after a Cougar Helicopters aircraft crashed into the sea. All 17 of the other passengers were killed.

Decker's family issued a statement on Saturday saying that Decker, who worked as an ice spotter at one of the platforms off Newfoundland's east coast, had been revived on Friday but was not able to communicate with them.

RCMP Supt. Reg Reeves told reporters that investigators are hopeful Decker may soon be able to shed light on the final minutes of the flight.

"The RCMP investigators anticipate that they will be able to talk to Robert Decker, the only survivor of the crash, sometime later in the week," Reeves told a media briefing.

Asked for more details on Decker's medical condition, Reeves said, "We were in constant contact with the hospital, but [as for] his current update, we're not aware of [that] specifically, other than we've been told he'll be available later this week for an interview by us."

Speaking through a family friend on Monday, the Decker family said Robert has spoken with family members and doctors, but is still fighting serious injuries.

At this time, the friend said, Decker is not yet able to assist authorities with their investigation.

The Transportation Safety Board launched an official investigation on Friday evening, just as a formal search for further survivors turned instead to a recovery mission.

The fuselage of the helicopter was located Saturday, as TSB investigators used an underwater remote-operated vehicle (ROV) to scan the site.

However, further inspection led investigators to conclude that the helicopter was seriously damaged. The helicopteris under 178 metres of water, considerably more than first thought, and the TSB said the craft was"quite compromised"after the collision.

Nick Stoss, a former TSB investigator, said Monday some assumptions could be drawn from those descriptions of the fuselage.

"The damage described ... is indicative indeed [that] this was not a controlled ditching in the water ... but indeed the aircraft probably flew into the water, and most likely in an uncontrolled state, but that again is speculation," Stoss told CBC News in an interview from Ottawa.

Search and rescue officials said last week that the helicopter's crew had advised minutes before it went down that it was "ditching" the aircraft, which suggested they were hoping to execute a controlled landing.

Decker was pulled from the ocean by another Cougar chopper and flown to the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's.

Thebody of passenger Allison Maher, 26, was also found on the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

It's not known how Decker and Maher wound up outside the helicopter.

Investigators have recovered some parts of the helicopter, including the main entrance door, a cargo door at the aft and an emergency exit door.

On Sunday, using an ROV, the recovery team brought nine bodies to the surface and then delivered them to St. John's. The bodies, which have not yet been identified, are in the care of the office of the medical examiner.