Divers recover bodies of copter crash victims

? Estonian and Finnish divers on Thursday recovered five of the 14 bodies believed trapped inside a submerged helicopter that crashed off Estonia’s coast, the Interior Ministry said.

Estonian officials said the cause of Wednesday’s crash in the Baltic Sea was unclear but said that technical problems might have played a role.

The U.S.-made Sikorsky S-76 went down three minutes after takeoff on a commercial flight from Tallinn to Helsinki, Finland. On board were two Finnish pilots and 12 passengers from Finland, Estonia and the United States. No survivors were found.

Officials said five bodies, including at least one of the pilots, were lifted from the wreckage, which was resting on the seabed at a depth of 160 feet.

U.S. officials said the National Transport Safety Board would assist Estonian and Finnish crash investigators. Copterline, the Finnish company that operated the helicopter, said a representative of Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. would help in the investigation.