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One of the victims of last week's deadly helicopter crash is being remembered as a "loving soul" who could always make people laugh.

Allison Maher, 26, was killed along with 16 others on Thursday when the chopper they were travelling in crashed into the chilly North Atlantic.

There was only one survivor.

Jim Maher said his niece was "extremely independent and hard working" and lived life to the fullest.

"Those who knew Allison would agree that she was a soft, loving soul with a powerful and infectious sense of humour," Maher said in a statement issued at the funeral.

"When she was back on shore, she spent every waking moment with the people she cared about -- living life to its fullest with her family, friends and her boyfriend. She did more in one year than most of us do in an entire lifetime."

Maher's funeral in Fermeuse, about two hours from St. John's, is the first in a series of memorials, as the victims of the crash are laid to rest.

Victim's names released

The RCMP confirmed at a Monday news conference that nine bodies were removed overnight from the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed with 18 people on board.

Chief Supt. Reg Reeves released an updated list of the victims, noting that some of the families had requested privacy, and the RCMP was honouring the request. He couldn't say which victims' bodies had been removed from the wreckage.

Here are the names, ages and hometowns of the victims, as released by the RCMP:

• Allison Maher, 26 years old, Aquaforte, N.L.
• Paul Pike, 49 years old, Spaniard's Bay, N.L.
• Burch Nash, 44 years old, Fortune, N.L.
• Derrick Mullowney, 51 years old, Bay Bulls, N.L.
• Ken Macrae, 47 years old, Greenwood, N.S.
• Colin Henley, 38 years old, St. John's, N.L.
• Wade Duggan, 32 years old, Witless Bay, N.L.
• Wade Drake, 42 years old, Fortune, N.L.
• Gary Corbett, 46 years old, Conception Bay South, N.L.
• Peter Breen, 55 years old, St. John's, N.L.
• Thomas Anwyll, 46 years old, Langley, B.C.
• Tim Lanouette, 48 years old, Comox, B.C. - First Officer
• Corey Eddy, 32 years old, from Paradise, originally from Sibley's Cove, N.L.
• John Pelley, 41 years old, Deer Lake, N.L.
• Capt. Matthew William Thomas Davis, 34 years old, St. John's, N.L. - pilot

Robert Decker, the only survivor of the crash, is still in hospital in St. John's.

Reeves said police have been told they will be able to speak with him by the end of the week.

"(His doctors) will allow us to enter his room when it's appropriate to enter into a conversation with him to obtain some very basic information," he told Â鶹ӰÊÓnet Monday afternoon.

Reeves said Decker had made the trip many times before and police were hoping his experience could help the investigation into what went wrong.

The recovery is still underway and more bodies are still in the wreckage.

Removal of bodies

The bodies that were removed under the cover of darkness were taken to a St. John's hospital where they were being examined on Monday by Dr. Simon Avis, chief medical examiner for Newfoundland and Labrador.

"The medical examiner, Dr. Avis, is currently in the process now of trying to identify those persons who were brought to shore and at this point there have been no positive identifications."

The bodies were located inside the fuselage of the Sikorski S-92 helicopter that was ferrying oil workers between St. John's and an offshore oil platform when it reported engine troubles, before crashing.

The chopper wreckage was found 178 metres under water, and the bodies were removed using a remote operated vehicle, or ROV.

Footage from the ROVs has shown the chopper to be in rough shape. The cockpit is damaged, the fuselage cracked and the tail boom is broken off from the rest of the helicopter.

"The water temperatures have been cold and there's been high winds and the conditions have been challenging," RCMP Sgt. Wayne Newell told CTV's Canada AM.

He declined to estimate how long the full recovery would take.

"It will take as long as it takes. I can't give you an exact time or a turnaround on the shift but we'll do whatever we can to help bring some closure to the families on this."

Newell said the recovery team has been in constant communication with the family members of the workers who were aboard the chopper when it crashed.

"One of the things they need now is information and we're trying to help them with that."

The bodies were brought from the crash site to St. John's aboard the Atlantic Osprey, an offshore supply ship.

The vessel docked at the Canadian Coast Guard base, where it was met by several emergency vehicles.

Police cordoned off the area as the remains were unloaded from the Osprey. A few hours later the ship left to return to the crash site and continue with the recovery effort.

The Osprey will eventually be used to help pull the helicopter's wreckage from the ocean floor.

Recovering the chopper

Mike Cunningham, the lead investigator with the Transportation Safety Board said the TSB will draw on their experience with the recovery of the remains of Swiss Air Flight 111, which crashed off Peggy's Cover, N.S. in September 1998.

"If we can retrieve 95 per cent of a large airliner, which was basically in tiny little pieces, I'm pretty confident -- unless there's something I don't know about -- we'll be able to retrieve what's down there."

Various debris, including some of the personal belongings of those on board, has already been recovered from the crash site.

The upper and lower parts of the chopper's main door, the aft cargo door and one emergency exit door have been recovered.

Investigators say the wreckage of the chopper, which is about 180 metres below in the Atlantic, contains vital clues such as flight data recorders.

Transport Canada says that the pilot of the chopper declared a mayday "due to a main gearbox oil pressure problem."

Community mourns

Some of those who were killed were from the Bay Bulls area of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Mayor Don Drew said the entire community is mourning.

"In our area a number of people from that shore have been involved and there's no house, no family in the community that hasn't been affected," he told Canada AM.

He said many people from the area work on the offshore oil rigs, and are continuing to commute on helicopters between the mainland and the platforms.