The
El Faro is a 40 year old, 790-foot U.S. flagged containership that left Jacksonville, FL, on September 29 bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico. The
last known position of the ship was about 20 miles from the eye of the Category Four Hurricane Joaquin, near Crooked Island in the Bahamas. Search and rescue crews searched more than 70,000 square miles but no survivors were found. There were 33 crew members on board.
According to investigators from the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB), the captain aboard the El Faro had reported a hull breach, a blown scuttle, and the presence of water on board in an emergency call on October 1, before communications between shore and the ship were lost.
According to the
NTSB report, investigators found the following:
•
El Faro successfully completed the American Bureau of Shipping class and statutory surveys in February, meeting all regulations and rules;
• An annual inspection of the ship was done in March;
• In September, the ship owner shut down one of the ship's two boilers so that it could be inspected. The boiler service company recommended service to both boilers as a result of that inspection. That service had been scheduled for November;
• Safety drills were conducted on a weekly basis;
•
El Faro met stability criteria when it left Jacksonville.
Three former crew members of
El Faro reported to CNN that the ship had structural problems and questioned whether it should have sailed with a major storm in the region.
The family of one of the missing crew members has filed a lawsuit against the company that owned the ship and the boat's missing captain for $100 million. Attorney Willie E. Gary filed the lawsuit. Gary alleged that the 40-year-old
El Faro wasn't seaworthy. He said there was another ship available and that the company should have sacrificed profits in the name of safety. Since then, two other suits have been filed by families of missing crew members.
Tote Services has said that while the maritime accident is being investigated, it cannot comment on
El Faro's disappearance.
Now it seems that possible debris from the cargo ship has begun washing ashore on the islands of San Salvador and Exuma in the Bahamas. A large container fragment is one of these items, and according to software from Tote maritime, the container number can be traced to a unit that was loaded onto the
El Faro before she set sail. However, the Coast Guard and NTSB officials have yet to confirm this.
Over the weekend, the NTSB announced that a Navy search team has been tasked with locating the ship, and if possible, retrieving the ship's voyage data recorder, commonly known as a 'black box.' Locating this could provide insight into the crew's decision-making leading up to, and during, Hurricane Joaquin.
A black box in working order will emit a signal for 30 days, meaning that only one week remained upon the team's arrival to the last known location of the
El Faro. The Navy will employ a pinger locator to try and triangulate the signal from the black box. If they still cannot find it, or if the batteries in the black box die, the Navy team will switch to a sonar operated vehicle that is towed underwater.
Stay tuned for updates on the investigation.