The body of an oil rig worker was recovered today from the wreckage of a helicopter which crashed off Sarawak, after nine others aboard escaped serious injury.

The Super Puma L2 helicopter carrying workers for state oil firm Petronas ditched yesterday about 80km off the coastal town of Bintulu, while flying between two offshore platforms in foggy conditions.

Nine people including the two pilots and seven passengers were rescued about three hours after the crash by a Petronas vessel and marine police.

"Petronas regrets to inform that the search and rescue team of the Super Puma L2's incident offshore Bintulu, Sarawak, has found the body of the missing aircraft passenger," the company said in a statement.

The body is identified as Aewan Faslasaini Sallehin, 22, who was a technician.

Seven of the survivors have been discharged from hospital, and the remaining two are under observation but are not suffering from serious injury, it said.

Flights suspended

A Petronas spokesman told AFP that the weather at the time of the crash was "very bad - foggy, and a high swell" but the cause of the crash of the chopper, operated by Malaysian Helicopter Services, was not yet known.

"Petronas expects investigation into the cause of the incident to commence soon and will be working closely with all the parties concerned to assist in the investigation," the company statement said.

The state Bernama news agency said the incident was the third involving a Super Puma helicopter belonging to Malaysian Helicopter Services (MHS) in the last two years.

It said that in June 2005, one crashed near Shell Malaysia's oil rig off Bintulu, but that all the 13 passengers including two pilots on board survived.

On Nov 11 last year, another carrying 23 people crashed in Terengganu state in peninsular Malaysia during stormy weather, killing its pilot, while the others aboard escaped unhurt.

After the incident yesterday, Petronas has suspended all offshore flights using MHS.