Efforts will now shift to determining what went wrong on the fatal voyage.
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But knowing that a potential hurricane was brewing, why was El Faro allowed to go ahead with its scheduled route? “I hope the families can take a few small measure of peace from that”.
The El Faro issued a distress call about 36 hours into its journey, saying it had lost propulsion and was taking on water as it sailed into the path of Joaquin.
“When we describe it as a family business, we don’t just mean our family, we mean everybody who works there”, he said.
The ship was crewed by 28 USA citizens, as well as five Polish nationals who were members of a so-called “riding gang” commonly hired to perform repairs and maintenance. Families keeping vigil at the Seafarers global Union hall reacted with both grief and anger.
Tote Maritime, said two vessels it dispatched to the scene had found a container “which appears to be from the El Faro”.
Schmiora Hill, whose cousin, Roosevelt Clark, was a crew member, told The New York Times that the search ended too soon. The company said the life rafts were made of fiberglass and would not sink even if they were full of people and water. “I feel like someone is still out there”.
On Monday, the Coast Guard concluded the ship sank near the Bahamas and one unidentified body in a survival suit has been found. The Coast Guard suspended the search for survivors Wednesday evening after covering more than 172,000 square miles.
The 790-foot (240-meter) ship was piled high with containers and also was weighed down with trailers and automobiles below deck, according to Coast Guard officials. Among the items found was a destroyed lifeboat, cargo, life jackets and styrofoam.
Meanwhile, TOTE Maritime, the company that owns the El Faro ship, says it is too premature to disclose exactly what may have gone wrong on the ill-fated ship noting that they “look forward to what the investigation reveals”. There are a lot of factors to consider.
The ship was 41 years old.
The Coast Guard said it was committed to finding survivors from El Faro, which had 33 crew members aboard.
The El Faro left Jacksonville September 29 bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico, about 1,300 miles to the southeast.
TOTE is cooperating with the investigation, said Pingree, and so far has provided the NTSB access to the El Faro’s sister ship, the El Yunque, which could help investigators learn about the unique characteristics of how the ship behaves during rough weather.
The device, which records audio on the bridge and data such as course and speed, should have activated as soon as water hit it, Dinh-Zarr said.
At about 15,000 feet down, the wreckage’s depth is approaching the outer limits of a typically feasible search operation.
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She wondered why the company had not commissioned a submarine for a deep sea exploration to confirm whether the ship had sunk with its crew still aboard.
