Cargo Business Newswire

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

U.S. Coast Guard concludes that the El Faro sank in hurricane

The missing container ship El Faro lost propulsion at sea, a Coast Guard official said Tuesday, leaving it disabled in the path of Hurricane Joaquin.

The U.S. Coast Guard has concluded that El Faro, which was carrying 28 Americans and five Polish nationals, sank last week. It was headed from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, when it disappeared near the Bahamas.

The president and CEO of the ship owner, Tote Services Inc., told The Associated Press that the captain had planned to move ahead of Joaquin -- with room to spare.

"Regrettably, he suffered a mechanical problem with

his main propulsion system, which left him in the path of the storm," Phil Greene told the AP. "We do not know when his engine problems began to occur, nor the reasons for his engine problems."

"They were disabled right by the eye of Hurricane Joaquin," said Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor to CNN's "New Day" on Tuesday. "If they were able to abandon ship and put on their survival suits, they would have been abandoning ship into that Category 4 hurricane. So you're talking about 140-mile-an-hour winds, 50-foot seas, zero visibility. It's a very dire situation, a very challenging situation even for the most experienced mariner."

For more of the CNN story: www.cnn.com