Coast Guard sending search team for missing crew
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The supply vessel Lee III sank near the mouth of the Mississippi.
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(CNN) -- The Coast Guard said it will send a commercial dive team Sunday to the wreck of the supply vessel Lee III, which sank near the mouth of the Mississippi River after colliding with a container ship.
Lee III's five crew members remain missing, according to a Coast Guard spokesman, who said the divers would be checking to see if the crew had found an air pocket in the wreckage. Kevin Robb also said the Guard had not ruled out the possibility that the crew swam to safety. The accident happened off the Louisiana coast.
The supply vessel had been carrying supplies to oil rigs at 5:20 a.m. when it struck the Zim Mexico III, a container ship hauling dry goods, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jonathan McCool.
A Coast Guard rescue boat arrived at the site soon after, and the search mission continued throughout the day and overnight.
"They were pretty quick to respond," McCool said.
The 180-foot Lee III and the 534-foot Zim Mexico III collided in the river's Southwest Pass, the largest of three waterways into the Mississippi River, he said, adding, "Unfortunately, the waterway is blocked."
No one was hurt aboard the container ship, he said. It was en route to New Orleans, Louisiana, from Mobile, Alabama, according to the company's Web site.
The Lee III is one of six vessels owned by Ocean Runner Inc., an offshore supply boat company based in Houston, Texas. A man who answered the telephone at the company said he could not comment.
The Zim Mexico III is registered in Antigua and Germany, owned by Rickmers & Cie., in Hamburg, and operated by Zim Israel Navigation Company.
