Compensation of £15m for Super Puma crash relatives

All 16 people on board the Super Puma died in the crash

Compensation of about £15m has been paid out to relatives of the men who died in a helicopter crash in the North Sea.

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

Ten claims lodged by relatives of the 14 passengers have now been settled for insurers at Bond Offshore Helicopters.

It is hoped the rest of the compensation cases can be dealt with over the next few months.

Eight of the victims came from the north east of Scotland, seven from the rest of the UK, and one from Latvia.

Relatives are still awaiting the outcome of an investigation into the tragedy.

Report due

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) is expected to publish its final report before the end of the year.

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.