Coronavirus: Helicopter remembrance service has to be held online

All 14 passengers and two crew died in the 2009 crash

An annual act of remembrance for a North Sea helicopter crash in which 16 men died has been held online because of coronavirus measures.

All 14 passengers and two crew lost their lives on 1 April 2009 when the Super Puma came down off Peterhead.

Relatives, friends and colleagues normally gather at a memorial in Johnston Gardens in Aberdeen.

Industry body Oil and Gas UK said Rev Gordon Craig instead provided an act of remembrance online.

Twelve of the victims came from Scotland - eight of them from the north east.

Three of the other victims lived in England and one was from Latvia.

The Super Puma helicopter, operated by Bond, crashed about 11 miles north east of Peterhead as it was returning to Aberdeen Airport from BP's Miller platform.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) pinpointed the failure of the gearbox in its examination of the crash.

A later Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) concluded that the crash could have been prevented.

The two crew who died were Captain Paul Burnham, 31, of Methlick, Aberdeenshire, and co-pilot Richard Menzies, 24, of Droitwich Spa, who worked for Bond Offshore Helicopters.

The KCA Deutag employees killed were Brian Barkley, 30, of Aberdeen; Vernon Elrick, 41, of Aberdeen; Leslie Taylor, 41, of Kintore, Aberdeenshire; Nairn Ferrier, 40, of Dundee; Gareth Hughes, 53, of Angus; David Rae, 63, of Dumfries; Raymond Doyle, 57, of Cumbernauld; James John Edwards, 33, of Liverpool; Nolan Goble, 34, of Norwich, and Mihails Zuravskis, 39, of Latvia.

The other victims were James Costello, 24, of Aberdeen, who was contracted to Production Services Network (PSN); Alex Dallas, 62, of Aberdeen, who worked for Sparrows Offshore Services; Warren Mitchell, 38, of Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, who worked for Weatherford UK; and Stuart Wood, 27, of Aberdeen, who worked for Expro North Sea Ltd.