Families hope loved ones can be found alive in capsized boat

PORT FOURCHON, La. (AP) — Divers searching for oil industry workers on a capsized liftboat prepared to enter the overturned vessel on Friday, a rescue effort complicated by daunting technical challenges and continued bad weather.

The hope is that the 12 missing people have found air pockets to survive inside the Seacor Power, most of which is submerged in 50-foot seas about 8 miles (13 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast.

“As long as the weather permits, the divers will try to gain to access to the vessel. That is the ultimate goal,” Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Galarza said early Friday.

The Coast Guard said at least two people were seen going back inside after clinging to the overturned hull after the ungainly platform ship flipped over in hurricane-force winds on Tuesday. They sought shelter after a third man fell into the water and was lost. There have not been any signs of life since then, officials said.

Time is of the essence, because air pockets will eventually become depleted of oxygen, said Mauritius Bell, diving safety officer and manager of dive at the California Academy of Sciences.

Surviving could depend on the size of an air pocket. “The larger the better, and it’s all about time,” Bell said.

“It would be somewhat analogous to breathing in and out of a paper bag,” he added. “At some point, it’s not survivable.”

On Thursday, searchers knocked on the ship’s hull without response.

“There is the potential they are still there, but we don’t know,” Petty Officer 2nd Class Jonathan Lally said Thursday. “We’re still searching for 12 people because there are 12 still missing.”

Relatives of the missing gathered at a fire station at Port Fourchon, a sprawling base for much of the offshore oil and gas industry in the Gulf of...