The U.S. Coast Guard has suspended a search for four foreign seafarers who went missing from their ship in the Mississippi near Belle Chasse, Louisiana.
The four men - all Bangladeshi nationals - were crewmembers of the ship Meghna Adventure, a 60,000 dwt bulker flagged in Bangladesh. According to the U.S. Coast Guard, they did not show up for watch late on Monday evening, and were declared missing at 2300 hours.
Sector New Orleans launched a small-boat crew to search the river, along with a helicopter out of Air Station New Orleans. The effort was unsuccessful and was called off on Tuesday.
Responders searched nearly 500 square miles over the course of 12 hours, the Coast Guard said.
“The decision to suspend a search is one that is taken with great care,” said Sector New Orleans. “The Coast Guard suspended active search efforts after the probable search area was saturated with multiple assets and resources. The search efforts also included multiple agencies conducting shoreline searches as well, however, we were unable to locate the missing individuals.”
The water temperature at the river gage in New Orleans is 60 degrees, and air temperature is the same. Average river current at New Orleans is about two knots, though it varies greatly with the seasonal water level.
Meghna Adventure remained at anchor in New Orleans as of Wednesday.
