Bad weather is expected to hamper the investigation into a helicopter crash which killed six men and left one missing, presumed dead.
The Eurocopter AS365N pitched into the Irish Sea off the Lancashire coast as it collected workers from Centrica gas rigs on Wednesday evening.
The men known to have died were pilots Stephen Potton, 51, and Simon Foddering, 33, and passengers Robert Warburton, 60, Leslie Ahmed, 48, John Shaw, 51, and Alfred Neasham, 57.
A massive search was launched for missing passenger Keith Smith, 57, from Stockton-on-Tees, but it was called off on Thursday night.
A spokesman for HM Coastguard in Liverpool, which coordinated the search, said it would not resume on Friday morning because of the amount of time passed since the accident.
He also said that stormy conditions forecast for the next two days would hamper the Air Accident Investigation Branch's search for the helicopter flight recorder, or black box.
He said: "The search for the missing man is effectively over, because of the amount of time he would have spent in the water, although transit vessels such as the Manx ferries will still be keeping a sharp lookout.
"Ideally, the search will now focus on finding the black box, but it looks as though the weather will curtail that.
"The Met Office has told us the next 24 hours will see force six to eight winds, occasionally rising to severe gale force nine, and the 24 hours after that will see force six to eight, increasing to storm 10 at times. It would be too risky to send people out searching in those conditions."
The cause of the accident is not yet known, and police and the helicopter's owners, Aberdeen-based CHC Helicopter Corporation, refused to speculate on possible reasons.
