Only six of the twenty six people on board escaped from the helicopter ; Lawlor exited through the emergency exit window by his seat , while Charleton and a child got out through the forward freight bay . Another child managed to escape via the rear freight bay , and two adults exited through the starboard airstairs door . In addition to the two pilots , the survivors were Howard Goddard ( aged 12 ) , Ellen Hanslow ( 15 ) , Lucille Langley-Williams and Megan Smith ( both 60 ) . Ellen spotted that Goddard was struggling in the water , and she swam to help him . None of the six had managed to retrieve a life jacket , and so the two pilots gathered the survivors together , and helped keep them afloat , using suitcases as flotation aids . The incident was the worst civilian helicopter crash in the United Kingdom since 1981 , when eleven oil workers and both pilots died in the 1981 Bristow Helicopters Westland Wessex crash
1981 Bristow Helicopters Westland Wessex crash
1981 Bristow Helicopters Westland Wessex crash
1983 British Airways Sikorsky S-61 crash