NEW ORLEANS (AP) - A voice recorder captured a "loud noise" in the cockpit of a helicopter shortly before it plunged into a Louisiana swamp last month, killing eight people, federal investigators said in a report released Thursday.

The family of an Alabama pilot who crashed and died in Louisiana last month has sued the helicopter maker in Montgomery federal court.

Beasley Allen files suit for family in helicopter crash.

The widow of a construction foreman who died in October after he and nine other workers fell from the bridge they were building filed a lawsuit against the state of Louisiana and two companies involved in the project.
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The family of a construction worker who died after a girder on the new twin spans fell into Lake Pontchartrain filed a lawsuit Friday against the company that manufactured the concrete beam, alleging it was flawed.

A lawsuit filed Friday alleges serious flaws in the construction of a girder that fell from the new twin spans being built across Lake Pontchartrain, killing one worker and plunging nine others into the water.

More than a week after tons of concrete and 10 men went crashing down into Lake Pontchartrain's chilly waters, leaving one construction worker dead, officials have no clear idea how a common procedure in a common construction design quickly turned into tragedy at the site of the new twin spans bridge.
Officials are sure they know what happened: A 70-ton girder rolled off the cap that tops the pillars supporting the bridge.

The St. Tammany Coroner's office has identified the man who died yesterday after a construction accident on the new Twin Spans bridge.

A construction worker was killed and three others were injured when a portion of the new Twin Span Bridge collapsed Thursday. Emergency officials at the scene said that dive crews have found the body of a man missing in the collapse, but they are waiting for a crane to lift a girder, which has trapped the body underwater, reported WDSU-TV.

NEW ORLEANS -- Dive crews are searching Lake Pontchartrain for a worker who fell in after a construction accident on the new Twin Span Bridge, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.