Canadian mayor pays tribute to North Sea helicopter crash victims
‘Tragedy will be felt across the UK’
Published:
A MAYOR from Canada today said the impact of the North Sea helicopter crash will be felt by the whole of the UK.
Dennis O’Keefe, pictured, supported his city in Canada after 17 people were killed in a helicopter crash there.
And the Canadian mayor said thousands of people paid their respects to those who lost their lives in the helicopter crash off Newfoundland last month.
A Sikorsky S-92 helicopter crashed into the water, 47 miles from the Canadian city of St John’s, just minutes after the helicopter’s pilot issued a mayday.
St John’s mayor Mr O’Keefe said: “To have two helicopter incidents, one very tragic, certainly takes its toll on the people not only in Aberdeen but I would say the whole of the UK will feel it.”
St John’s mayor Mr O’Keefe, who was in Aberdeen last year for a World Energy Cities Partnership meeting, knew some of the St John’s helicopter crash victims personally and said one funeral saw a church packed.
The mayor said: “I haven’t seen numbers like that since the Pope was here in 1984.
“The funeral was very poignant, very emotional, very sad. You know that by the expressions on people’s faces, by the silence.
“Thousands of people did not know the individual crash victims but felt it was really important they be there as a sign of support.”
And Mr O’Keefe said he expected people in Aberdeen and Scotland would show the same level of compassion for the families of the helicopter crash victims.
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