Washington  - Seventeen people were missing after a helicopter crashed into the Atlantic Ocean Thursday while taking workers to an oil platform off Canada's coast, authorities said.

The helicopter departed from Saint John's, the capital of Newfoundland and Labrador on its way to the Hibernia oil platform when in crashed in the cold waters, said Jeri Grychowski, spokeswoman for the Joint Rescue and Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Frankfurt- German airline Lufthansa AG on Wednesday forecast another drop in earnings this year after reporting a 64-per-cent drop in 2008 profit due to the economic downturn.

The carrier said net profit fell to 599 million euros (757 million dollars) last year, adding that it expects its 2009 operating profit to come in "significantly positive," but lower.

Operating profit fell 2.2 per cent to 1.35 billion euros last year from 1.38 billion euros in 2007, Lufthansa said.

Amsterdam  - Several Dutch KLM Airlines aircraft have altimeter problems, Dutch BNR News Radio reported on Wednesday.

Referring to "classified files" given to BNR, the radio station said KLM has registered altimeter problems on 17 occasions in the past six months.

On February 25, a Boeing 737-800 from Turkish Airlines crashed near Amsterdam. Nine people were killed and 121 injured. Preliminary results from the ongoing investigation said a faulty altimeter was the cause of the crash.

Rabat, Morocco  - West and central Africa have rapidly growing aviation markets, but the local airlines are having a hard time defending their turf against foreign competition.

Many African airlines "have very short life spans," Jacques Courbin, president of the African air traffic control agency Asecna, told the magazine Jeune Afrique.

Athens - The European Commission Tuesday approved the sale of Greece's national carrier Olympic Airlines to the Marfin Investment Group after years of failed privatisation attempts.

The deal involving Marfin, a Greek-based investment holdings company, comes a month after the conservative government made a last- minute appeal for investors to rescue Olympic, after an international tender failed to produce satisfactory offers.

Bids by two other companies for the ailing airline, Aegean Airlines and US-based Chrysler Aviation, were rejected.

Athens  - After years of failed privatization attempts, the Greek government sealed a deal Friday with the country's largest buyout firm, Marfin Investment Group, for the sale of debt-ridden carrier Olympic Airlines, said Development Minister Kostis Hatzidakis.

The deal involving Marfin (MIG) comes a month after the conservative government made a last-minute appeal for investors to rescue Olympic, after an international tender failed to produce satisfactory offers.