A Kenner woman and two of her sorority sisters at LSU are among seven people who died in a helicopter crash in the Bahamas Thursday night.
LSU and Phi Mu sorority identified the victims as Jillian Clark of Kenner, Kameron Cline and Brittney Searson as three of the seven victims. All graduated in May 2019. Clark was also a standout volleyball player at Mt. Carmel Academy, where she played on two state championship teams.
The three were on the helicopter that included Virginia billionaire Chris Cline, who made his fortune in coal mining and three others who remain unidentified. Cline was the owner of the helicopter involved. Kameron Cline was his daughter.
Bahamas Police Superintendent Shanta Knowles told The Associated Press on Friday that the search began off the islands of Big Grand Cay, which Cline owned, when police received a report from Florida that a group including Cline had failed to arrive as expected Thursday in Fort Lauderdale.
A Royal Bahamas Police Force statement said authorities and local residents found the crash site two miles off Big Grand Cay, group of private islands Cline owned.
Knowles said tThe bodies of the four women and three men have been taken to the capital in Nassau to be officially identified. The helicopter was still in the water, and based on preliminary information, she did not believe there had been a distress call before it went down.