Five people whose bodies were recovered when a helicopter crashed into the sea off Norfolk have been named.

They are Philip George Stone, 53, of Norwich, Norfolk; Stuart Coggon, 45, of Middlesbrough, Cleveland; Angus MacArthur, 38, of Maryburgh, Ross-shire; Denis Kelleher, 40, of Lytham St Anne's, Lancashire; and Kevin John Taylor, 50, also from Norwich.

Another six people are still missing after the aircraft crashed into the North Sea on a routine journey ferrying staff to and from gas rigs on Tuesday night.

Norfolk police said the passenger and crew manifest named those missing as Geoffrey Bispham, 51, from the North Walsham area of Norfolk; David Graves, 33, of Beccles, Suffolk; Douglas Learwood, 40, of Middlesborough; and Paul Francis, 48, from Norwich.

The priority is about the recovery of those still missing

Detective Superintendent Chris Grant

The pilot has been named as Captain Phillip Mark Wake, 42, from the Norwich area, and his co-pilot as First Officer Phillip Dearden, 32, of Norwich.

Mechanical failure is being blamed for the tragedy, which happened when a Sikorsky S-76, owned by Bristow Helicopters, went down about 30 miles off the coast.

Great Yarmouth coastguard said no further progress had been made in the search overnight on Wednesday.

An Air Accidents Investigation Branch inquiry into the crash is under way and salvage teams are working to locate the wreckage.

On-board flight data recorders have not yet been found.

Sonar equipment

The Mayo, a diver support vessel from Aberdeen with heavy lifting equipment, joined the search on Thursday afternoon.

A Shell spokeswoman said: "The investigation is continuing. Two ships are carrying out a sub-sea survey with sonar equipment and this is continuing unabated."

An inquest into the deaths of the five men whose bodies have been found, opened by Great Yarmouth Coroner Keith Dowding, heard they had been identified from numbers on their waterproof survival suits and personal items held inside the suits.

Mr Dowding, who adjourned the inquest until 5 September, asked about the operation to locate the missing people and the helicopter.

'Wonderful husband'

Detective Superintendent Chris Grant from Norfolk Police said: "There's a tremendous amount of effort being put in, not assisted by the environment of the North Sea.

"The priority is about the recovery of those still missing."

A statement issued by the family of Mr Graves, who worked for Shell UK and is among those missing, said: "He was a wonderful husband to his wife Sharon for fours years and a fantastic daddy to Arabella, aged two, and Joshua, aged four weeks."

A family friend said he had been returning home after working at sea for two weeks when the accident happened.