El Faro (ship)
.jpg) Animation of the wreck of the El Faro
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The El Faro was a ConRo ship of the Jacksonville-based shipping company TOTE Maritime that entered service in 1975. On October 1, 2015, the ship disappeared near Crooked Island in Hurricane Joaquin after it had called for help with water ingress and a 15-degree list. On October 5, 2015, the ship and its 33 crew members were reported as sunk.
period of service
The El Faro was built by Sun Shipbuilding and entered service as Puerto Rico in 1975 . In 1991 the ship was sold and renamed Northern Lights until it was sold as El Faro to its last operator Sea Star Line based in Jacksonville in 2006. The ship's home port has been San Juan since February 2006 . At the time of his disappearance, the ship was loaded with 391 containers and 294 vehicles. There were 33 crew members , 28 Americans and five Poles on board the El Faro .
Average
The El Faro set out on a voyage from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico on September 29, 2015 , where it was due to arrive on October 2 at 5 p.m. local time. On the morning of October 1, the ship was in distress in Hurricane Joaquin. The ship then sent calls for help. According to the last call for help from El Faro , the propulsionless ship had water ingress and a list of 15 degrees, but was still under control.
The US Coast Guard has been looking for the missing ship since October 2, after weather planes had previously searched for the El Faro . On October 3, one was lifebuoy of El Faro found. Further debris and a lifeboat followed a short time later. On October 5, 2015, the search for the ship was stopped after the body of a crew member had been found. The coast guard assumed that the El Faro had sunk. At the presumed sinking site, the coast guard found a field of debris floating on the water surface with an area of about 583 square kilometers.
examination
On October 31, 2015, the US Transportation Safety Agency (NTSB) reported that the crew of the US Navy's deep- sea tug Apache had used a sonar device to locate a wreck at a depth of more than 4,500 meters. It should be the El Faro . To confirm the find, the wreck should be examined more closely with the remote-controlled deep-sea robot CURV 21 of the US Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Diving (SUPSALV).
On January 3, 2016, pictures and a video of the US Coast Guard were released showing the wreck of the El Faro . The images were captured on December 29, 2015 by a ROV (Remote Control Vehicle) from USNS Apache . They show a large hole in the hull and that at least a large part of the bridge has been torn down and is about 800 meters away. The main mast to which the ship's data recorder is attached was not located until April 26, 2016 .
In August 2016, the National Transportation Safety Board announced that the data recorder could be transferred to the laboratory and read out. There are approximately 26 hours of information.
In March 2018, the NTSB published a final report. Therein the decision of the captain of the El Faro not to avoid the storm is mentioned as the main reason for the accident ; he also did not use all available weather information. The practice of not requiring conversion to closed lifeboats for older ships is also criticized. In addition, failures of the owners in maintenance and management are identified.
Web links
- El Faro Incident
- Stern: 220-meter freighter lost in the Bahamas
- Firstcoastnews: Coast Guard loses contact with container ship in Hurricane Joaquin
- CNN: Ship with 28 Americans missing in Hurricane Joaquin
- abcnews: Cargo ship missing as Joaquin slams Bahamas
Footnotes
- ^ Update: Coast Guard searching for missing container ship caught in Hurricane Joaquin. (No longer available online.) US Coast Guard, Oct. 2, 2015, archived from the original on Oct. 5, 2015 ; accessed on October 6, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Coast Guard searching for container ship caught in Hurricane Joaquin. (No longer available online.) US Coast Guard, Oct. 2, 2015, archived from the original on Oct. 4, 2015 ; accessed on October 6, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Freighter lost after hurricane: Captain of the "El Faro" chose risky course , Spiegel online, October 21, 2015.
- ↑ Lizette Alvarez, Richard Pérez-Peña: US-Based Cargo Ship With Crew of 33 Sank in Storm. October 5, 2015, accessed October 5, 2015 .
- ^ Eliott C. McLaughlin and Kevin Conlon: Coast Guard finds debris field in search for El Faro. October 5, 2015, accessed October 5, 2015 .
- ↑ Wreckage of Cargo Ship Believed to be El Faro Located in More Than 15,000 Feet of Water , National Transportation Safety Board , October 31, 2015.
- ^ Sinking of the Freight Vessel El Faro , National Transportation Safety Board, Jan. 3, 2016.
- ↑ Photos of the sunken freighter: The mysterious sinking of the "El Faro" , Spiegel Online, January 3, 2016.
- ↑ NTSB Locates Sunken Cargo Ship's Voyage Data Recorder , National Transportation Safety Board, April 26, 2016th
- ↑ 26 Hours of Information Recovered from El Faro Voyage Data Recorder , National Transportation Safety Board, August 24, 2016.
- ^ Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro. Atlantic Ocean, Northeast of Acklins and Crooked Island, Bahamas. October 1, 2015 (pdf) , NTSB
