More than 200 people packed a north-east church at the weekend to remember the victims of a North Sea helicopter crash.
A special service was held at the Kirk of St Nicholas Uniting in Aberdeen to pay tribute to all those who died offshore in the past year.
This year’s event marked seven deaths, including the four who died in the Super Puma crash off Shetland on August 23.
The helicopter was carrying 16 passengers and two crew when it plunged into the sea two miles from Sumburgh Airport.
During the service, the Book of Remembrance, created for the 25th anniversary of the Piper Alpha disaster, was also unveiled.
Representatives of the industry, as well as civic leaders, joined friends and family of the victims, who stood at the front of the kirk.
Mourners were invited to light a candle for their lost loved ones, lit from a single, larger candle commemorating all those who had died in the oil and gas industry in past decades.
The silence surrounding the simple but moving ceremonial lightings was broken by a hymn accompanied by the Bon Accord Silver Band. The service was led by the Rev Gordon Craig, chaplain to the UK oil and gas industry, who read out the names of those who had died.
They included the four who failed to survive the fatal crash in August – George Thomas Alison, Sarah Helen Darnley, Gary McCrossan and Duncan Munro. He also named Kevin Samuel Colley, Billy McKenzie and Eamonn Martin Mooney.
Pipe major Julie Brinklow played the Piper’s Lament from behind the heavy curtain of the historic kirk’s entrance.
The service included contributions from several local church leaders, including the Rev Stephen Taylor, the minister of St Nicholas, who welcomed mourners and offered a benediction at the end of the hour-long service.
Tony Schmitz, deacon of St Mary’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, and the Rev Dr Ian McLean, assistant chaplain to Mr Craig, offered prayers, while Canon Graham Taylor of St Mary’s Episcopal Church gave a reflection on the eternal nature of love and loss.
Mr Craig called on those who wished to have their loved ones included in the Book of Remembrance to contact the oil chaplaincy. The book is available for viewing at the dedicated oil chapel in the kirk.
An investigation into the Shetland crash is continuing. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch found no evidence of technical failure in the helicopter.