El Faro reported 'hull breach' before sinking in hurricane
Source: Reuters
US | Tue Oct 20, 2015 5:33pm EDT
El Faro reported 'hull breach' before sinking in hurricane
MIAMI | BY DAVID ADAMS
The captain of the U.S. cargo ship El Faro reported "a hull breach" and said a hatch had blown open before the vessel sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane earlier this month, the National Transportation Safety Board said on Tuesday.
In a recorded satellite phone call Captain Michael Davidson told the ship's owner he had "a marine emergency" after taking on water in one of the holds, the NTSB said in an update on its two-week-old investigation of the sinking.
It said the captain also reported that the ship had lost its main propulsion unit and that engineers could not get it restarted.
The El Faro and its 33 mostly American crew members disappeared on Oct. 1 after sailing into the path of Hurricane Joaquin while en route from Jacksonville, Florida, to Puerto Rico in the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel since 1983.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/20/us-ship-elfaro-idUSKCN0SE2UM20151020