CHALMETTE, La. — After reportedly driving a pickup truck off the landing terminal, a person in Chalmette was made the subject of a Coast Guard search crew Saturday. St. Bernard Parish officials closed the ferry Saturday morning as a result of the investigation into the accident and the search.
Around 4:20 p.m., the Coast Guard crew suspended search efforts to find the reported person in the water, a Coast Guard officer said. "Coast Guard aircrews and boat crews saturated the search area with no sightings reported."
"It was reported that local refinery employees saw a person swimming from the truck towards the West Bank," a Coast Guard officer said on Saturday. "Due to low light conditions, there is no definitive description of the person in the water."
According to the St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office, deputies were called in the middle of the night Saturday to respond to the incident.
"Around 2.22 a.m. ... deputies responded to a call for service in reference to a pickup truck traveling off the Chalmette Ferry landing and into the Mississippi River," SBPSO said Saturday.
Coast Guard officials said they sent out both an aircrew and a boat crew to look for the person.
Anyone with information about this incident has been asked to call the Sheriff’s Office at (504) 271-2501, or Crimestoppers GNO at (504) 822-1111.
