Eight people lost their lives and one was injured when a helicopter transporting oilfield workers to a job site crashed in a marshy area of Southeast Louisiana wilderness, Coast Guard officials informed.

Jaclyn Young, a Coast Guard spokeswoman said that the operator of the helicopter, owned by Petroleum Helicopters Inc., based in Lafayette, La., broadcast a distress signal at 3 p.m. The signal was picked up by United States Air Force Rescue Coordination Center in Virginia which in turn alerted the Coast Guard station in New Orleans, she said.

All eight bodies were recovered at or near the crash scene. The site where this disaster took place is about a hundred miles southwest of New Orleans in a marsh crossed by canals, bayous and several tidal lakes and can be reached only by airboat.

The cause of the crash is not known yet and is still under investigation.

According to local news reports, A Coast Guard helicopter took the survivor to a hospital in critical condition.