Divers find 2 more bodies in a capsized Seacor Power lift, Coast Guard says; 9 still missing | Again

Rescue divers entered the capsized Seacor Power elevator in the Gulf of Mexico on Friday and found the bodies of two crew members, the Coast Guard said.

The agency did not release the names of the dead, but Jonathan Lally, subclass 3, said they were in the engine room at the back of the vessel, which capsized with 19 people on board to its starboard side on Tuesday. Members of the extended family of Seacor Power on Thursday expressed hope that two crew members who were presumably in the engine room of the ship would be pulled out alive.

Another body of the crew member was found Wednesday and one on Thursday a few miles west of the crippled vessel. Lafourche Parish Coroner John King identified the men as Captain David Ledet (63) of Thibodaux and Ernest Williams (69) of Arnaudville.

Six were rescued shortly after the crash. Nine are still missing.

The Coast Guard said Seacor’s owners had contracted commercial divers from Donjon Marine Co. after the vessel struggled in a severe storm eight kilometers south of Port Fourchon.

They returned to the vessel at 7:50 a.m. Friday. “The divers had to stop diving in the middle of the morning due to the dangerous weather conditions, but at about 13:30 they started diving again,” the agency said.

The diving action would continue Friday night, weather permitting.

The Seacor Power capsized while en route to deliver equipment to an oil platform near the mouth of the Mississippi River. It left Port Fourchon around 13:30 on Tuesday, although the National Weather Service had already warned of tropical storms – 39 km / h or more – accompanied by ‘suddenly higher waves’ in the Gulf.

These winds soon reached hurricane force due to a rare weather event known as a ‘wake low’. The Seacor Power applied water and tipped over to its starboard at around 4.30pm and made an increasingly serious effort that will take place on the fifth day on Saturday.