Thursday, March 28

Coast Guard Ends Search for 8 Missing in Gulf

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The Coast Guard has suspended its search for the eight crew still missing from the 129-foot commercial lift boat that capsized in a sudden storm in the Gulf of Mexico last week.

The boat, the Seacore Power, was eight miles off Port Fourchon, the southernmost port in Louisiana, at the time. Six members of its crew were rescued fairly quickly, and the bodies of five others were recovered. A massive search, covering more than 9,200 square nm and involving four Coast Guard cutters, three 45-foot response boats, six fixed-wing aircraft and three helicopters did not find the eight still missing.

Divers even pounded on the submerged hull of the Seacore Power, hoping to hear answering noises from anyone trapped inside, but they heard nothing.

The boat had sent a distress call at 4:30 in the afternoon that was heard by the Coast Guard in New Orleans. Just half an hour earlier, the National Weather Service there had issued a marine warning, predicting steep waves and winds up to 58 mph in the Gulf.

When the first Coast Guard crews arrived at the scene, the boat was resting on its starboard side in 7- to 9-foot waves and 80- to 90-mph winds.

Lift boats are fairly common in that section of the Gulf. They are self-propelled vessels with large open decks used to support oil and gas drilling and construction offshore. They often carry cranes on deck, and they have legs that can be jacked down to the seabed to provide a stable platform for offshore work.

The Seacore Power had three such legs that could be deployed down 195 feet below the surface. It had a capacity for 12 crew and 36 passengers.

After the Coast Guard ended its search, the focus shifted to the National Transportation Safety Board. Capt. Will Watson, commander of Coast Guard Sector New Orleans, said the Coast Guard would work with the NTSB “to figure out what happened here so that hopefully we can learn some lessons that help us prevent this from ever happening again.” Read more:

https://coastguardnews.com/coast-guard-suspends-search-for-remaining-seacor-power-crewmembers/2021/04/19/

https://gcaptain.com/coast-guard-suspends-search-for-seacor-power-survivors/?fbclid=IwAR1dzqrx2rHOWFCAwA5bp9ZrR0BpBdyWtPFWU9XIgYll5b-vUZiBVCbTZ5U

 

 

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