One dead, two missing after chopper crash

One passenger died and two others are missing feared dead after a helicopter crashed in Shanghai yesterday when it clipped a container ship.

The Canadian pilot of the helicopter was rescued.

Rescuers were still looking for the two missing passengers, while the body of one passenger had been recovered.

Xinhua said two foreigners were on board the helicopter when it crashed but it did not say if the body that had been recovered was that of a Chinese national or a foreigner. The nationalities of the missing were not revealed.

Quoting information provided by the Shanghai Maritime Bureau, Xinhua said the accident happened when the helicopter's blades clipped the container ship.

The helicopter was hired by the Singapore-flagged container ship to transport the ship's Chinese pilot back to land. The container ship was moored in the south channel at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

Xinhua added there was heavy fog when the accident happened at 11am.

Shanghai rescue authorities despatched two salvage vessels and a helicopter to the scene soon after the accident.

But rescuers found only parts of the helicopter's wreckage, a life raft and a float.

They were unable to find the bodies of the two missing passengers.

Xinhua's report suggested that because of the low temperature yesterday, the chance of finding any more survivors was low.