Helicopter with 4 on board crashes in Gulf of Mexico

By SARA CLINE
Associated Press

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The Coast Guard has spent hours searching off the coast of Louisiana for four people on board a helicopter that crashed while departing an oil platform. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jose Hernandez said the helicopter crashed into the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday morning. It went down about 10 miles (16 kilometers) offshore of Southwest Pass, Louisiana. Hernandez said a Coast Guard boat and helicopter were searching but had not found any of the missing people by Thursday afternoon. He said a pilot and three oil platform workers were on board. A spokesperson for the company was not immediately available for comment.