El Faro sinking

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JK
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El Faro sinking

Post by JK »

Terrible incident.

Tote has set up a dedicated website:
http://elfaroincident.com/

Video of the lifeboat with USCG diver investigating:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQv_NxVBge0
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Re: El Faro sinking

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USCG no longer looking for survivors.
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El Faro Wreck found, missing bridge

Post by JK »

The navigation bridge of the El Faro is missing from the shipwreck that was found Saturday (Oct 31) in 15,000 feet of water east of the Bahamas, and the data recorder has not been found, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.
The bridge — the captain’s operation center — and a deck below it separated from the cargo ship, the agency said.
USNS Apache crew operating the search vehicle, a submersible called the CURV-21, were also unable to find the ship’s data recorder, or “black box,” which could hold a wealth of key information.
An NTSB statement said searchers plan a broader sonar survey of the area around the ship to map the debris and find the bridge structure.

https://www.vesselfinder.com/news/4645- ... -not-found
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Re: El Faro sinking

Post by The Dieselduck »

well, isn't that convenient...
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Re: El Faro sinking

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http://www.miamiherald.com/news/weather ... 05154.html

Interesting article about searching the wreck site with an ROV
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Re: El Faro sinking

Post by Merlyn »

Looks like a super bit of kit, be interesting to see the outcome.
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She was an oldie

Post by JK »

Reports of leaking:

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/2 ... -Represent

According to reports she popped a hatch open. Its pretty non-specific to what hatch and where.
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Re: El Faro sinking

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The vultures circle areound the dead bodies of seafarers.
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Re: El Faro sinking

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They called off the search for the black box. They found the bridge deck but not the mast where the box was fitted. Amazing what they found at 3 miles down.
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Re: El Faro sinking

Post by The Dieselduck »

Whooa, I think corporate dodged a bullet on that one. I think it would have been pretty clear very fast what happened to her from the voice recording and probably not complimentary of the state of a 40 year old ship in the middle of a hurricane. But yes, it is pretty fantastic to think that the ship was found at all, in such depths.

In a side note, another TOTE ship, North Star lost power yesterday, off BC coast, between the Queen Charlotte and northern tip of the island. Tasked was the CCGS Gordon Reid to have a look-see, heard shes back under her own power. For those interested, there is a Mighty Ship episode done on her.
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El Faro was on list of vessels in need of attention

Post by JK »

Given that Canada's Transport Canada is busily divesting themselves of inspection of vessels, the final paragraph stands out.

From Splash 24/7
February 23rd, 2016 Donal Scully Donal Scully 
The El Faro was on a list of vessels considered to be in need of more safety inspections, according to testimony on Monday at the hearing into the sinking of the cargo ship.
Speaking at the US Coast Guard (USCG) Marine Board of Investigation in Jacksonville, Florida, Captain Kyle McAvoy USCG Chief of Commercial Vessel Compliance said El Faro was on his office’s targeting list of ships needing extra inspection. The list was to have been released just days after the day El Faro sank.
McAvoy said the reason El Faro was put on the list was because of a marine casualty incident involving a crewmember’s health.
Much of Monday’s hearing, the sixth day of a potential 10, concerned the USCG’s Alternate Compliance and Safety Agreement Program (ACP) under which many vessel inspection jobs are outsourced to third parties because USCG lacks the resources to do them all itself.
Before the 1990s the USCG was doing all inspections itself.
(Bold by myself)
Another witness, Captain John Mauger, Commanding Officer with the USCG Marine Safety Centre, told the hearing that the ACP had deficiencies including significant error rates and discrepancies in work done by third parties. But he drew no direct link to the El Faro case.
Another search will be undertaken by NTSB in April of2016 for the voyage data recorders.
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Old Rule davits?

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Lifeboats on the El Faro were open boats with old rule (?) davits. I am assuming so as they talk about abandoning the ship at 15% list.
The 40-year-old El Faro ship, which sank in a hurricane last October 1, was always needing maintenance, its former chief engineer said at an ongoing US Coast Guard enquiry yesterday.

The investigating panel were told about problems affecting the boilers while Capt Todd Coggeshall, from the US Coast Guard, said the Tote-controlled vessel did not have an enclosed free fall lifeboat.

Rod Sullivan, a Jacksonville maritime attorney, said the questions about the ship having open life boats instead of closed ones is another issue the maritime industry is going to have to deal with.

“That’s been a known problem for years,” Sullivan said. “Once a vessel is 15% listing, launching the lifeboats is a virtual impossibility. Launching lifeboats in 30 ft seas is impossibility. So then you’re relegated to using the rafts and getting off ship into life rafts in heavy seas is a real chore.”
Splash 24/7

http://maritime-executive.com/article/u ... eting-list
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El Faro sinking VDR found

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El Faro's Voyage Data Recorder Found
By MarEx 2016-04-26 16:59:53

The voyage data recorder from the cargo ship El Faro, which sank in October during a hurricane off the Bahamas, was located on Tuesday in 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) of water, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said.

The recorder, which may contain hours of information related to the ship's engine and communications from its bridge before the sinking, was found using remotely operated undersea search equipment, the NTSB said.

All 33 El Faro crew members died in the disaster.

The 790-foot (241-meter) El Faro went down off the Bahamas on October 1 while on a cargo run between Florida and Puerto Rico. It was the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than three decades.

An earlier effort to find the recorder was not successful. Federal officials put hearings on the disaster on hold after two weeks in February, hoping that another search could retrieve the device and produce more detail.

The investigative team is comprised of specialists from the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. Coast Guard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and Tote Services, the owner and operator of El Faro.

At about 1 a.m. EDT the team aboard the research vessel Atlantis located the El Faro’s mast where the VDR was mounted. After examining numerous images provided by undersea search equipment, the team positively identified the VDR.

“Finding an object about the size of a basketball almost three miles under the surface of the sea is a remarkable achievement,” said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “It would not have been possible without the information gained during the first survey of the wreckage and the equipment and support provided by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy, the University of Rhode Island, and the many other partners involved in this effort.”

The type of VDR mounted on El Faro is capable of recording conversations and sounds on the ship’s navigation bridge, which could provide investigators with important evidence as they seek to understand the sequence of events that led to the sinking.

The next step in the ongoing investigation is to determine how the VDR can be retrieved.

Immediately after the announcement, the U.S. Coast Guard said it would conduct a second set of hearings into the accident from May 16 to May 27, focusing broadly on topics including ship operations, weather conditions, and regulatory oversight.

The agency's Marine Board of Investigation plans a third hearing to examine additional evidence, including anything recovered from the voyage recorder, at an unscheduled date.

In his final transmissions, El Faro's captain reported that the ship was losing propulsion and taking on water.

Company executives have said the decision to attempt the voyage and set the ship's route, despite the weather forecast, were the responsibilities of the captain, who went down with his ship.
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Re: El Faro sinking

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ABS Surveyor Mark Larose testimony

the Engine Room was clean.


But no inspection of the boilers, which failed………………..

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/loca ... /205506149
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Re: El Faro sinking

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Links to the El Faro news reports.
Interesting parallels in what the USCG has done, to what TC is doing in directing ships inspections to class.


http://www.wokv.com/s/news/el-faro/
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