A helicopter crashed into an oil rig off the coast of Dubai on Wednesday killing all seven people on board and forcing the closure of the Rashid oilfield, the civil aviation authority and oil services company said.

The helicopter, which was travelling from Dubai's main international airport to the oilfield around 70 km off the coast of Dubai, crashed onto the deck of the Maersk jack-up drilling rig, they said.

'The aircraft then broke up and fell into the sea,' Petrofac, the operater of Dubai government's offshore oilfields, said in a statement.

'Immediately following the incident, a fire broke out on the main deck of the drilling rig which was quickly contained and extinguished... All operations on the Rashid field have been suspended and the platform and drilling rig have been secured.'    
The helicopter was carrying an American, a Briton, a Pakistani, a Filipino, a Venezuelan and two Indians, none of whom survived, the civil aviation authority said.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known.

'The General Civil Aviation Authority of the United Arab Emirates immediately set up an investigation team to find out the cause of the aircraft crash,' it said in a statement. - Reuters