HOUSTON — The U.S. Coast Guard spent hours Thursday searching waters off Louisiana for four people who were on board a helicopter that crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Just before 9 p.m., the search was suspended.
The helicopter crashed as it was departing an oil platform owned by a Houston-based company at about 8:40 a.m. CST, said Petty Officer Jose Hernandez, a spokesman for the Coast Guard’s 8th District headquartered in New Orleans. Crews searching by boat and helicopter had found no sign of them by the middle of the afternoon.
“We are still searching for all four of them,” Hernandez said. “We haven't found anyone.”
The helicopter went down about 10 miles (16 kilometers) offshore of Southwest Pass, a shipping channel at the mouth of the Mississippi River southeast of New Orleans.
Hernandez said the missing consisted of the helicopter's pilot and three oil platform workers. Helicopters routinely transport workers to and from oil platforms in the Gulf.
Hernandez said the oil platform is operated by Houston-based Walter Oil and Gas. A person who answered a reporter's phone call to the company's headquarters Thursday said no one was immediately available to comment.
Weather didn't appear to be a factor in the crash, Hernandez said, as there were no reports of storms in the area Thursday.
Two weeks ago, the Coast Guard rescued three people after a helicopter crashed off the Louisiana coast while attempting to land on an oil rig platform. That crash occurred Dec. 15 south of Terrebonne Bay, roughly 60 miles (96.56 kilometers) west of the area the Coast Guard was searching Thursday.