The Coast Guard has concluded the vessel sank near the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin. Then, with obvious sadness and regret, Petty Officer Mark Barney announced it would halt the hunt for survivors later in the evening.
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Among the items investigators hope to recover is the ship’s voyage data recorder, which contains audio recordings from the bridge and basic navigational information like speed and direction and could be key to reconstructing the mysterious last 12 hours of the doomed ship. Searchers spotted one body in a survival suit on Sunday, officials said.
Chris Cash, whose last voyage on El Faro ended in January, said it was time to send the ship to the scrapyard.
Throughout a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, the Coast Guard declared it would stop its hunt for the boat and its 33 crew members that were missing.
There were 28 Americans and five Polish nationals aboard the container ship the El Faro when the vessel lost communication last Thursday near the Bahamas as the hurricane battered the islands. But he said he’s waiting first on the results of the federal investigation into the sinking that claimed the lives of 33 crew members. It has a battery life of 30 days, Dinh-Zarr said. The VDR does start pinging upon contact with water.
Safety Board vice chairwoman Bella Dinh-Zarr said their investigation so far has included talking with the captain of the El Yunque.
October 5 – The Coast Guard reports finding the remains of a seafarer wearing a survival suit.
“Without power, the ship is really at the mercy of the sea”, Werse said.
“As their ship battled the storm, they were no doubt working as they lived – together, as one crew”, Obama said.
Former crew members question the El Faro’s safety after the cargo ship encountered a hurricane and sank near the Bahamas.
He would have had access to weather forecasts every few hours from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) giving the likely speed, strength and direction of the storm. “While we can never say that we understand the pain and grief that those family members and loved ones are going through, I will tell you that as a family, the Tote family, we too are grieving”. Family members say they hope so, too. “But that’s where the water came from and caused the 15-degree list”.
“It is reported to me that his voice as well as well as a voice mail”. “Based on the evaluating the position of the ship when the captain reported (the propulsion failure), he was in the path of the storm”, Greene said.
The owners of El Faro insist Davidson had a “sound plan that would have enabled him to clearly pass around the storm with a margin of comfort that was adequate in his professional opinion”. Officials had broken the news to relatives of the missing earlier in the day.
“He was a good captain”, Hearman said.
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He predicted the NTSB will look into whether company pressure to deliver the cargo on time despite the menacing weather played a role in the tragedy – something Tote executives have denied.
