NTSB Report: El Faro Captain Reported Hull Breach

Yesterday afternoon, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released an updated report on their investigation into the sinking of El Faro in Hurricane Joaquin in early October. The report notes: “In a recorded satellite phone call to the company’s emergency call center at 7:00 am EDT, the captain told the call center operator that he had a marine emergency. He reported that there was a hull breach, a scuttle had blown open, and that there was water in hold number 3. He also said that the ship had lost its main propulsion unit and the engineers could not get it going.

The report also said that “the USNS Apache, a fleet ocean tug, was outfitted with specialized equipment for this mission, and departed Little Creek, Virginia, at about 4:30 pm EDT on October 19…. The Apache is estimated to arrive at the last known position of El Faro on Saturday, October 24, to begin the search for the ship and to recover the voyage data recorder. Once the search operation begins, it is expected to take at least two weeks.”

It is impossible to tell the extent of the hull breach reported by the captain on El Faro. Nevertheless, Great Land, a sister ship of El Faro, had a history of hull cracking.  In March of 1998, the Great Land had a fifty foot crack in the weather deck repaired as a result of damage in a winter storm in the Pacific.  There are also news reports of a “crack in its hull plates that extended from one side of the ship to another” following rough weather in the Gulf of Alaska. SS Great Land was scrapped in 2013.

Comments

NTSB Report: El Faro Captain Reported Hull Breach — 12 Comments

  1. Pingback: Containerschip El Faro gebroken | Bootjesgek.nl

  2. We knew they took on water, but they reported it was secure.
    Unless there was another breach, we may never know.
    The US Navy said they’d only spend a week looking east around Crook Island.

  3. I wasn’t talking about the Apache search.
    The navy and ntsb will use the same gear they used to search for the downed flight from Malaysia.
    They said they’d search for 1 week.

  4. El Faro search ended at sunset, Coast Guard says –
    Oct 7, 2015 – (CNN) The U.S. Coast Guard said it called off its nearly weeklong search for the missing mariners of the El Faro at sunset Wednesday
    http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/07/us/el-faro-missing-ship/

    Same equipment used in MH370 search sent for El Faro …
    Navy deploys MH370 search equipment in hunt for El Faro cargo ship. By Kevin Conlon, CNN. Updated 9:13 AM ET, Sun October 18, 2015.
    http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/17/us/el-faro-search/

  5. Have not heard any further news on this subject,since the indication that “EL FARO” was not a container ship but a RO/RO,which should make it more vulnerable to hurricanes like Joaquin. (Example:”HERALD OF FREE ENTERPRISE” and others) Understand that some of the relatives of crewmembers of lost vessel have filed suits against the owner,but the media is silent now…

  6. I first read this blog yesterday, 11/09/2015. It was illuminating the number of well-thought-out posts I read. The participants on yesterdays blog–concerning the recent marine casualty “El Faro”–seemed to be from the “deep sea” U.S. Merchant Marine who have a great amount of book knowledge, practical knowledge, are very well thought out, and very, very well-written. My background is that I was an Able Seaman on oilfield supply vessels in the Gulf of Mexico to get myself through Animal Science school, then got an advanced degree in Library Science. At the present time I’m doing preliminary research on the loss of “El Faro” with the intention of producing a manuscript for publication about 2022.
    QUESTION:Why does the U.S. Coast Guard allow its inspectors to inspect a vessel, order deficits corrected, have those corrections made good, but still allow it to sail in a condition that crewmembers from previous voyages say “that it shouldn’t be allowed on the water?” Miguel P.

  7. Does the VIN change when a vessel goes from being called “Puerto Rico” to “Northern Lights” to “El Faro?”
    In the Gulf of Mexico on “oilfield supply vessels” I never saw anyone with a “immersion suit” or “survival suit.” Must mariners on certain classifications of vessels have them by law?
    Thank you for your comments.

  8. The IMO number stays the same when the ship name changes.

    I am a bit rusty on some of the regs but this is my understanding. The USCG requirement for immersion suits applies to “cold water areas.” Here is the NVIC addressing it. https://www.uscg.mil/d13/cfvs/PDFs/nvic7-91.pdf The vessels in the Gulf, operating in warmer waters, were probably not required to carry them. It is not clear to me whether El Faro was required to carry them in the Atlantic below 35 degrees latitude. Given that she had sailed in Alaska and was scheduled to return, having survival suits aboard is not surprising.

  9. Pingback: El Faro Search Ends — Black Box Not Found | News For Mariners