NEW ORLEANS — The U.S. Coast Guard and local authorities are searching the Mississippi River near Belle Chasse for four missing crew members of a carrier vessel.
The Coast Guard confirmed the search Tuesday morning to WWL Louisiana.
"On Monday at approximately 11 p.m., Coast Guard Sector New Orleans watchstanders received notification of potentially four persons in the water," said a Coast Guard spokesperson.
The Coast Guard said that all four people are believed to be of Bangladeshi nationality and crew members of the Meghna Adventure. They described the men as ages 25, 29, 30 and 47 with dark hair and brown skin.
The four men did not arrive for muster aboard the vessel late Monday, according to the Coast Guard.
Captain Chaun Dominigue, a spokesman for the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office said they were notified Tuesday morning shortly before 8 a.m. that four men may have jumped in the water from a passing ship.
Dominigue said the men may have jumped off the ship between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. and it's uncertain as to where the ship was when the men got off.
They could have left anywhere between Plaquemines Parish and Destrehan, where the boat was docked Tuesday morning, according to Dominigue.
He said that law enforcement in Plaquemines Parish, St. Bernard and New Orleans were notified to be on the lookout.
The Coast Guard is using an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and a Coast Guard station small boat crew.