JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – A second round of investigative hearings into the sinking of the freighter El Faro starts Monday and will seek new information about the vessel’s stability and whether there were mistakes in weather forecasting or cargo loading before the ship’s final voyage.
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He testified Monday before the U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation.
He was among some two dozen experts set to testify during a second round of hearings on the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a USA -flagged vessel in more than three decades.
Bryson said he remembered no irregularities with the 790-foot cargo ship, and that its crew was acting normally as it prepared to sail September 29 to Puerto Rico.
“Enhanced wind and waves were along the track showed the low pressure system in the global model moving along the storm track properly, but for some reason – an anomaly that we have not reproduced or identified – the tropical storm file was not updated”, Hale said.
The 790-foot (241-meter) ship sank off the Bahamas during a hurricane on October 1, two days after leaving Jacksonville before the storm intensified into a hurricane.
Family members of the 33 crew members who died when El Faro sank are hoping for answers. Most of the crewmembers were from Florida, and others were from Georgia, Maine, Virginia, Delaware, Tennessee, Massachusetts and NY.
The Coast Guard panel is looking for evidence of negligence or misconduct and the cause of the sinking.
Search crews recently discovered the El Faro’s voyage data recorder in 15,000 feet of water, but couldn’t recover it. It may contain recordings from the ship’s bridge that will paint a more accurate picture of why Davidson chose a faster, but less safe, route despite knowledge of the storm.
Ultimately, the Coast Guard panel expects to issue a report and could make recommendations on safety standards to prevent a similar disaster in the future.
The company does not forecast the weather.
Axelsson, who seemed confrontational at times, said he never ran the ship in conditions as bad as what he believes they would’ve been in Hurricane Joaquin’s path. He says, after waiting a year and a half, the company offered to settle where his record is cleared and they part ways- he accepted.
An official with company testified there was a problem with the program on Sept 30th, a day before the El Faro sank.
A former captain with the company said Tote officials failed to act appropriately to safety concerns he brought up while captain of another ship.
TOTE attorneys declined to question Hearn on his account of his end of employment.
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During its first meeting in February, the Coast Guard panel heard the final phone call of the ship’s doomed captain, Michael Davidson, a veteran mariner from ME, who warned that the “clock was ticking” as his vessel took on water.
