The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Louisiana
October 11, 2003
— A sea and air search for a missing helicopter with oil company employees aboard continued through the night Friday and will keep going around the clock, said a spokesman for the U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans.
“We’ll continue as long as we think we can find survivors,” said Lt. Steve Cory. “It will depend on weather conditions and water temperature.”
Bad weather may have caused problems for the mid-sized Bell 206 helicopter, which was about 80 miles south of Cameron when it was reported missing, en route from one platform to another about 80 miles away, Cory said. The helicopter is owned by Petroleum Helicopters Inc. of Lafayette.
“At the time they were trying to land, a squall line and heavy rain came through that area,” he said. Cory said the pilot, a PHI employee, last made contact with PHI headquarters at about 10:15 a.m. Friday as he was about to land.
“He reported that he was landing on an oil platform, but never actually landed on it,” Cory said.
PHI notified the Coast Guard at 11:30 a.m.
The three people aboard were the pilot and two oil company employees who were being taken to the second platform. None has been identified by the Coast Guard or PHI.
The search has escalated since it first began Friday afternoon, Cory said. In addition to a Coast Guard helicopter crew from Houston and a jet crew from Mobile Ala., by Friday evening a second jet crew was dispatched from Corpus Christi, Texas, as well as the Heron, a Coast Guard cutter from Galveston, Texas.
Ed Gatza, PHI’s manager of field human resources, said his company is also looking for the missing helicopter.
“PHI has a couple of boats searching with sonar,” he said, trying to locate emissions from the helicopter’s emergency transmitter.