SABINE PASS, Texas -- Three people died Thursday when their helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Mexico on the way to an oil rig, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The search continued for two others who were on the helicopter.

Coast Guard Petty Officer Renee Aiello said Jefferson County authorities had pronounced the three dead. She said a Coast Guard cutter would remain in the crash area overnight and aerial searches will resume Friday morning.

Aiello said the Coast Guard was alerted at 9:47 a.m. by a call from the helicopter leasing company Rotorcraft Leasing Co. LLC of Broussard, La., which reported that the pilot had not checked in as scheduled.

A rescue helicopter crew found the three men and debris in the water about two miles off the Texas coast.

The helicopter was headed toward an unmanned oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico about 18 miles offshore, Aiello said.

The air temperature was about 36 degrees, with water temperatures at 62 degrees around the time of the crash, said Donovan Landreneau, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles, La. Wind was blowing from the west at 23 knots, and there was a small craft advisory in effect.

A spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board in Washington said investigators would work with the Federal Aviation Administration to determine the cause of the crash.

Sabine Pass is about 90 miles east of Houston.