The El Faro’s sinking is the deadliest US shipping disaster since 1983, when a bulk carrier sank off the coast of Virginia, killing 31 crew members and prompting major changes in shipping safety standards and water rescue techniques.
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Robert Green, the father of missing crew member LaShawn Rivera, told reporters he was still praying for a miracle despite the decision to call of the search.
Joaquin quickly developed into a powerful Category 4 hurricane, but Tote officials say its captain, Michael Davidson, had an acceptable plan to bypass the storm that would have worked had the ship not lost power amid 140 miles per hour winds and 50-foot waves.
Over the course of the more than six-day search, hurricane spotter airplanes, C-130s, Coast Guard cutters, tugboats, commercial ships in the region and a Navy plane that scans wide swaths of ocean scoured the seas, searching for the 33 crew members.
The ship is believed to have sunk in waters that are 15,000 feet deep.
The U.S. Coast Guard’s search for the missing cargo ship El Faro, which vanished from radio communication in the midst of Hurricane Joaquin on October 1, will formally end tonight at sunset, announced Coast Guard Captain Mark Fedor at a press conference held today in Jacksonville, Florida.
The U.S. Coast Guard has officially suspended the search for El Faro survivors at nightfall on Wednesday.
Earlier, federal investigators said they still hoped to recover a data recorder from the ship. Helicopters and a Coast Guard cutter searched the waters since Sunday; though searchers found wreckage, they did not find anyone alive. But because of the significant loss of life, it is expected that authorities will make every effort to locate the ship’s remains and find the data recorder that could explain how and why it went down.
One of the missing crew members from the USA cargo ship, El Faro, that sank off the Bahamas, grew up in Groton.
It has a battery life of 30 days, Dinh-Zarr said. The Coast Guard said the crew list was provided by the ship’s owner, Tote Maritime.
When the El Faro left Jacksonville five workers from Poland came along with the US crew to do a few preparatory work in the engine room, according to Greene.
Officials from the company that owns the vessel, Tote Inc., say they don’t believe so. The Coast Guard will participate in the NTSB’s investigation.
Laurie Bobillot saved the email she got from her daughter, a second mate on El Faro, as the ship was about to face Hurricane Joaquin.
Personnel not normally involved in search operations – including cooks and engineers – could be found on the ships’ bridges peering through binoculars and night-vision goggles in hopes of finding the ship. “As Americans, our economic prosperity and quality of life depend upon men and women who serve aboard ships like the El Faro”.
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The El Faro and its equally aged sister vessel were being replaced on the Jacksonville-to-Puerto Rico run by two brand-new ships capable of carrying much more cargo and emitting less pollution.
