COAST GUARD SUSPENDING SEARCH FOR EIGHT MISSING
The Coast Guard said it was suspending its search for eight crew members of a commercial lift boat who have been missing since the vessel capsized in treacherous weather in the Gulf of Mexico near Louisiana on April 13.
The bodies of five crew members have been recovered, Capt. Will Watson, the Coast Guard’s sector commander for New Orleans, said at a news conference where he announced the searchand-rescue effort would end at sundown Monday.
“Five, unfortunately, have been recovered deceased and eight persons remain missing,” he said.
“We just came here from talking to the families,” he said. “Told them what I’m telling you all now. There was a lot of hugging and a lot of crying. There was a lot of sadness and grief. But there was also a lot of hope and a lot of faith, still. I just want to say to all those folks, our deepest sympathies extend to you all.”
The “focus now will shift” to a National Transportation Safety Board investigation, Watson said.
The Coast Guard, he said, would “work very hard in the days ahead, in the weeks ahead, in the months ahead with the NTSB to figure out what happened here so that hopefully we can learn some lessons that help us to prevent this from ever happening again.”
Six people were rescued hours after the craft capsized, and one person was found dead on the surface of the water the next day, the Coast Guard said. Another body was pulled from the water on April 15, and two more were recovered by divers the next day. Watson announced the recovery of a fifth body at the news conference Monday.
The Coast Guard had sent a dive team to the hull of the boat in the hopes of finding survivors trapped inside. But divers who knocked on the hull did not hear any response, the Coast Guard said Thursday night.