Coast Guard ends search for boat’s crew
CUT OFF, La. — The U.S. Coast Guard said it suspended at sunset Monday the search for crew members who disappeared when a lift boat capsized off Louisiana last week, and authorities do not expect to find more survivors from the vessel.
The grim news from Capt. Will Watson, commander of the Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, comes after days of searching for the missing workers from the oil industry lift boat Seacor Power, which capsized in about 50 to 55 feet of water on April 13 during a fierce storm in the Gulf of Mexico about eight miles south of Port Fourchon. Six of the 19 workers on the boat were rescued within hours of the wreck; five more bodies were found in the water or on board the vessel. Eight remain missing.
The president of the Seacor Marine, which owns the boat, said during the news conference that private divers will continue to search the entire vessel. John Gellert said they were about halfway through the vessel as of midday Monday.
While many families have questioned why the ship was out in such stormy seas, Gellert said the decision on whether to go was entirely up to the captain, David Ledet, 63, who is among the dead.
Lift boats have three legs that can be lowered to the sea floor to raise the ship off the water to serve as a temporary offshore platform.
Gellert said it appeared the legs were fully retracted — a position he described as its “most vulnerable” — but there are indications that the captain was trying to lower the legs when the ship capsized.