( CNN ) -- The search will continue until at least Friday night for 16 people missing since Thursday morning when a helicopter carrying them to an offshore oil platform ditched in the Atlantic Ocean off Newfoundland , Canadian officials said . A helicopter made an emergency crash landing off Newfoundland en route to Hibernia oil field on Thursday . One survivor , identified as Robert Decker , was found and taken to a hospital , but efforts to find more survivors had proven fruitless , said Maj. Denis McGuire of the Rescue Coordination Center in Halifax , Nova Scotia . The body of one person , who has not been identified publicly , also was pulled from the water . There were 18 people aboard the helicopter when it went down , about 30 nautical miles from St. John 's . `` All we 've got is the debris field , '' McGuire said . `` There are no indications of any [ more ] survivors , but the search will continue . '' The water is 400 feet deep at the site where the helicopter hit the water , he said . Helicopters and ships were scouring the debris field Thursday evening , and search-and-rescue technicians were planning to use night-vision goggles and flares overnight . The debris filled a six-mile area , said Jeri Grychowski of the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax . Officials became aware that the helicopter was having problems shortly after 9:10 a.m. , when the pilot declared a mayday , McGuire said . `` They declared their mayday and then they hit the water or landed in the water approximately eight minutes later , '' he said . About 25 minutes later , a helicopter arrived and discovered the survivor , the body , the overturned helicopter and two empty life rafts , he said . Those aboard should have have been wearing survival suits that would have kept them dry and were equipped with lights and personal locator beacons , but the suits have not helped searchers . `` We have not received any signals whatsoever , '' McGuire said . The suits theoretically would allow wearers to survive 24 hours in the freezing waters -- or until about 9 a.m. Friday -- but the search effort was to continue well beyond that . `` We will continue to search until there 's absolutely no chance that any survivors will be located , '' he said . `` Until last light [ Friday ] . '' At that time , based on water temperature and the size of the search area , officials will decide whether to continue the effort , he said . Early in the day , high winds and seas hampered the search , but by late afternoon , the weather had improved , though seas were still about 13 to 16 feet ( 4 to 5 meters ) and winds were at about 40 knots ( 46 mph ) . The survivor was taken to the Health Sciences Center in St. John 's , Newfoundland . The helicopter had been heading to the Hibernia offshore oil platform when it went down in what Grychowski called a controlled emergency crash landing . The pilot reported some technical malfunctions before the crash and radioed that he was turning the chopper around , said Rick Burt of Cougar Helicopters -- the operator of the S-92 Sikorsky copter .
NEW : Search to continue `` until there 's absolutely no chance '' of locating survivors . NEW : People aboard chopper should be wearing survival suits , locator beacons . New : Helicopters are being sent out from the base in case they need help. 18 aboard were oil workers ; copter ditched into waters off Newfoundland .