The U.S. Coast Guard suspended its search Thursday night for four men aboard a Rotorcraft Leasing Co. helicopter that crashed leaving a Walter Oil & Gas Corp. platform in the Gulf of Mexico Thursday morning.
The crash occurred at around 8:40 a.m. CST, when employees of Rotorcraft called Coast Guard District 8 to report one of its helicopters went down 10 miles offshore from Southwest Pass, Louisiana. The pilot and three platform employees were aboard.
Witnesses told WLOX-TV of Biloxi, Mississippi, that as the helicopter departed the oil platform, it hit the helipad and tumbled into the water.