PORT FOURCHON, La (AP) – According to a coroner and the family member of one of the missing workers, the body of a second dead worker from an elevator that capsized earlier this week was found about 33 kilometers from the capsized ship. .
Rescuers in the air and at sea were searching for the workers who were on board the vessel when it capsized in rough weather about 13 miles off the coast of Louisiana on Tuesday. Six people were rescued shortly after the vessel capsized Tuesday, one body was pulled from the water Wednesday and 11 are still missing.
Lafourche Parish coroner John King told The Times-Picayune / The New Orleans Advocate that a second body had been found but that he did not disclose the person’s name.
Steven Walcott, whose brother was on the capsized boat, told The Associated Press that the Coast Guard told relatives of the second body during an information session Friday.
Divers searching for survivors on a capsized elevator were prepared to enter the vessel on Friday, a rescue effort that was complicated by technical challenges and continued bad weather.
The hope is that the 11 missing people found aerial vehicles to survive inside the Seacor Power, most of which were submerged in about 15 miles off the coast of Louisiana in 50-foot seas.
“Right now we’re hoping for a miracle,” Walcott said.
The third class of Carlos Galarza, non-commissioned officer, said early on Friday that divers would allow the weather to get on board the vessel for the time being. But Dawn Saddler, sister of Gregory Walcott, said that during the meeting, families were told that divers did not board the boat on Friday morning due to the difficult weather.
“They had to go this morning,” she said. “They’re trying to find the right way to go.”
Two of the missing people communicated with a two-way radio with rescue services on Tuesday after the ugly platform turned into a hurricane storm that day. They were observed clinging to the enclosed hull but returned to seek shelter inside after a third man fell into the water and got lost. There have been no signs of life since then, officials said.
Time is of the essence because airbags will eventually run out of oxygen, said Mauritius Bell, diving safety officer at the California Academy of Sciences.
“It would be somewhat analogous to breathe in and out of a paper bag,” he added. “At some point, it can’t survive.”
Survival may depend on the size of the bag. “The bigger the better, and it’s all about time,” Bell said.
On Thursday, searchers knocked on the ship’s hull without response.
Relatives of the missing gathered at a fire station in Port Fourchon, a sprawling base for much of the Gulf of Mexico’s offshore oil and gas industry. The port, busy with cranes, cargo and heavy equipment, is where workers from all over Louisiana and thereafter load a fleet of helicopters and ships that take them to the rig for long assignments.
Marion Cuyler, who is engaged to crane operator Chaz Morales, faltered between optimism and fear after family members received enclosed briefings from Seacor executives and the Coast Guard.
“Hopefully they are all in one room, and can save them all in just one day,” she said.
The families expressed frustration during the briefing and want answers to their questions about why the boat braved the sea despite warnings of an impending storm, she said.
“I asked, ‘Who gave the order,’ and of course silence, ‘she said. Cuyler said she told her future husband he would not go out in such weather. “And he knew they should not go out.”
Walcott, who also worked on elevators, reflected the frustration over conditions. He said the boats were not designed to travel in difficult weather.
Bell said it is fortunate that rescuers know the design of the vessel.
“It’s not like they’ve diving into an old wreck that is dilapidated and falling apart,” he said. “One of the things you do, it’s in their favor, is that it was a working boat, so you would know the layout of the vessel.”
The first Coast Guard ship arrived on the scene at 5:10 p.m., about 40 minutes after the initial distress signal, and spotted five men holding onto the hull, Galarza said.
A Bristow Marine company helicopter crew dropped life jackets and two-way VHF radios on them, he said. Two of the men fell into the water and were picked up by the Coast Guard. Around the same time, boats of Good Samaritan rescued four other people, he said.
The Coast Guard was able to talk on the radios to the three people who were still on the ship’s hull, but the sea was too rough to reach them. Later Tuesday night, the Coast Guard was notified that one person had fallen into the water and was not seen again.
Shortly before 10pm, the two remaining people told the Coast Guard that they would go inside again, and this was the last time the Coast Guard spoke to them, Galarza said.
The agency on Thursday dropped a Coast Guard crew within meters of the capsized vessel and threw a hammer at the hull in contact with potential survivors. If there was a reaction, they could not hear it over the wind and engine noise, they said.
The body of one person was recovered from the water on Wednesday when searchers scanned an area as large as Hawaii, the Coast Guard said. The Corour’s Office of Lafourche Parish has identified him as David Ledet (63) of Thibodaux – a city in southeastern Louisiana where many people work in the oil industry.
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Martin contributed from Woodstock, Ga.
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The quote from Steven Walcott’s quote was corrected as ‘hope for a miracle’.