ST. JOHN'S, N.L. - A sombre Rick Burt reflected the anguish that overcame Newfoundland's offshore oil community once again Thursday when a helicopter ferrying 18 people to oil platforms on the Grand Banks ditched and sank in frigid water.

One person was rescued and one body recovered shortly after the Sikorsky helicopter went down about 65 kilometres southeast of St. John's. Officials said the search for the other 16 people who were on board the helicopter would continue overnight.

"It's a difficult time ... it's a very personal situation," said Burt, general manager of Cougar Helicopters, the Newfoundland company that owned the downed chopper.

"I've been here 30 years. ... Most of these people are my friends and I've flown with them," he continued in a trembling whisper.

"My concern immediately went for them and for their families."

But as the day moved into nightfall with no sign of the remaining 16 people on board, dark memories of a tragic night 27 years ago resurfaced for many.

In 1982, the Ocean Ranger drilling rig capsized during a terrible storm and sank, claiming 84 lives.

"It brings back memories, indeed it does," said Brian Bursey, a retired St. John's teacher whose brother Paul was among those killed.

"It will have similar consequences to the Ocean Ranger simply because this is a small community and so many people are affected directly or indirectly."

The survivor who was rescued shortly after the crash on Thursday, Robert Decker of St. John's, was pulled from three-metre swells by another Cougar helicopter and flown to the Health Sciences Centre in St. John's.

He was listed in critical but stable condition.

The Sikorsky S-92 helicopter, piloted by two crew members, was carrying 14 workers to the Sea Rose floating production and storage platform and another two to Hibernia when it experienced unspecified technical problems.

It reversed course on its way back to St. John's but soon fell into the Atlantic eight minutes after issuing a mayday. It sank in 120 metres of water.

Two life-rafts were spotted in the water, but rescuers later confirmed they were empty.

For Owen Myers, the crash revived memories of his commute to work while employed in Newfoundland's offshore industry during the 1980s.

"How many times did you look down and just think, `Well, my God, you go down in this, we're done,' " said Myers, who was a weather observer on a nearby rig the night the Ocean Ranger sank.

The flight to the offshore platforms -- located roughly 350 kilometres east of St. John's -- can appear dangerous, but Myers said workers are fully aware of the risk inherent in their jobs.

"You don't feel about it any differently than getting in your car and going to work," he said.

"They know that this is always a possibility. They don't look forward to it. It's like being a member of the military."

Several aircraft and ships scoured a six-kilometre debris field in the hopes of locating the missing 16.

Maj. Denis McGuire of the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre said rescue crews would continue searching throughout the night.

"We're always hopeful that we'll find everyone that may be out there, so we'll continue searching until there's no chance whatsoever," he said.

McGuire said that with the water temperature hovering around 0 C, a healthy 30-year-old male wearing a survival suit could last about 24 hours in the water.

Everyone aboard the helicopter would have been required to wear such a suit, which are equipped with water-activated locator beacons.

It was initially believed a number of the beacons had been triggered, but McGuire later said no signals had been picked up from the suits.

He stressed that the lack of signals did not indicate the beacons had failed to work.

"I can't speculate on why they wouldn't have worked," McGuire said.

Burt said the crew aboard a Provincial Airlines fixed-wing aircraft spotted the helicopter floating upside down about 10 minutes after it hit the water.

Within 45 minutes, two Cougar helicopters hovered above the crash scene, but the chopper had already sunk.

It was equipped with emergency flotation bags, but Burt said he didn't know whether they malfunctioned. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada has been called in to investigate.

The crash comes three weeks after a British Super Puma helicopter went down near an oilfield in the North Sea. All 18 aboard that chopper managed to survive on two inflatable life rafts.

Burt later said the company had grounded all of its helicopters.

The Sikorsky, which can seat about two dozen, was on its way to two of the three production platforms on the Grand Banks when the pilot reported problems.

Burt said the helicopter was a "new generation aircraft" that was no older than four years.

Premier Danny Williams said it was "with a very heavy heart" that he learned of the crash.

"I want to express my most heartfelt and sincere condolences to the family and friends of the individual who has been confirmed lost," he said in a statement.

"I cannot begin to imagine the sorrow and despair of those who are left to mourn this incredible tragedy."

The weather at the time of the ditching was good, with the wind clocked at 37 kilometres per hour and wave heights recorded at two to three metres.

The first call for help was placed to air traffic control in Gander, N.L., at 9:18 a.m. local time.

Two Hercules aircraft were dispatched, along with two Cormorant rescue helicopters and an Aurora long-range patrol aircraft. Two coast guard ships were also sent to the scene.

The 90-minute shuttle flights are a regular occurrence at St. John's International Airport, with rig workers typically working offshore for about three weeks at a time.

"In order to fly on a helicopter everybody has to have a survival suit and everybody has been trained in evacuating a helicopter should it go down," said Charles Shewfelt, national representative for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union.

"We've never ... had a helicopter accident that involved ditching," Shewfelt said.

"There's been incidents where engines have failed, but we've never had something as serious as this."

Bursey said tragedies of this nature affect almost everyone in a small community like Newfoundland.

"You always know somebody who knows somebody," he said. "It's why it hits you so heavy and makes it so difficult to deal with.

"They're never strangers. That's the way it is here."

Matilda O'Keefe, who works at The Black Dog bar in downtown St. John's, said she thought immediately of the Ocean Ranger when she learned of the chopper crash.

"I'm devastated," she said. "I would never have thought in this day and age that it would happen but it does."

O'Keefe said Decker, the survivor, frequents the bar with other offshore workers.

"He's a very good guy. They're all nice people," she said. "It's sad, very sad, very tragic.

"He's alive, God bless him, and he's the only one who can tell what happened."

Krista Korner, assistant manager of Christian's Bar in St. John's, said she got that "horrible, familiar feeling again" when she heard about the crash.

"As a child I remember the Ocean Ranger and knowing three of my classmates' dads were on it," she said.

"The first thing you say is, `Do I know anyone who's out there?' "