'My amazing escape from chopper'

A rig worker today told of his "incredible" escape from the helicopter crash. The engineer, who asked not to be named, was on the flight from Norwich Airport to the Santa Fe Monarch gas drilling rig.

However, as he boarded the Sikorsky S76 he was told he would be dropped off at the Clipper platform in the North Sea first, in a last-minute change to plans. Five minutes after the flight touched down at the Clipper platform the helicopter plunged into the sea. "It has shaken me up badly," the worker said from the Clipper today.

"I was meant to be on board that helicopter at the moment it crashed. Minutes before it went down I was on it, talking to colleagues who died soon afterwards. One of them was the rig manager. If I had stayed on board for the second leg of the journey to the Santa Fe Monarch I would be dead now. It was a strange twist of fate that I was told I would be going to the Clipper at the last moment."

Workers on the rigs, 25 miles north-east of Great Yarmouth, travel by helicopter between the platforms and the town, where many of the workforce live.

The employee continued: "I've flown the journey hundreds of times before. It was just an incredible escape that I was taken off the helicopter just before it crashed.

A last-minute change of plan by someone I do not know saved my life."

The flight to the Clipper had been "completely routine", he said, adding: "There were no problems while I was on board. Conditions were fine and the engine sounded normal."

He said all work had stopped today on the platform and described the atmosphere as "deathly quiet". He added: "We all know people who were on board. This is a very dark day for everybody."