The wreckage of the helicopter itself was located by sonar operators on the Estonian Maritime Administration vessel EVA-320, who indicated that the aircraft was intact at a depth of roughly 43 metres (141 ft).

The missing pilot was not found in the initial searches performed by the Estonian and Finnish authorities, but the body was finally located on 25 August and retrieved by volunteer divers some distance away from the accident site.

The Estonian authorities refused to send the flight data recorder of the helicopter to the United States because the aircraft was manufactured there, thus possibly creating a conflict of interest.

The accident investigation board published a preliminary report on 14 September 2005, in which they ruled out most possibilities of physical damage before the helicopter hit water, including sabotage and collision with a flock of birds.

In November 2005, the NTSB issued an "urgent" recommendation to the FAA to require all S-76 operators to carry out "immediate visual and laboratory examinations" of main rotor servos for plasma flakes and other contamination.

However, in the final report, Copterline was criticized for omitting a periodic leak test of the hydraulic flight control system that could have revealed the problem.