NTSB: Navy will find sunken ship, locate key data recorder

The Coast Guard says it has ended its search for 33 missing crew members from a USA cargo ship that sank last week during Hurricane Joaquin.

Family members of the 28 Americans onboard a cargo ship which sank off the southern Bahamas after it crossed paths with Hurricane Joaquin continue to demand answers as they wait for more information about the fate of their loved ones.

Tote officials said they trust the company’s captains to be the decision makers, and that up until El Faro lost its propulsion, the reports were not alarming.

“I have come to a very hard decision to suspend the search for the crew of the El Faro at sunset tonight”, said Rear Adm. Scott Buschman, commander, Coast Guard 7th District.

Fedor, who stressed a communal bond between the Coast Guard and the missing crew and their families, called the ship’s disappeared crew members “our fellow professional mariners”.

Debris seen in the water from the El Faro search area in this handout photo provided by the US Coast Guard, yesterday. The searchers found a body in a survival suit, but could not retrieve it. They also found an empty life raft, empty survival suits, a life ring and other debris.

“Our focus has been, for the last week, very much on the search for the El Faro and the families of the crew”, Parrott said.

The US National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation into the incident.

Party to the investigation is the American Bureau of Shipping; TOTE Inc., the ship’s owners; and the nation of Poland, because five of its citizens were aboard to do work related to a pending retrofit of the ship’s engine room.

The El Faro’s relationship to Washington dates back to 1991 when Seattle-based Saltchuk Resources bought it to service Alaska and renamed it the Northern Light.

“I hope that now people can finally get closure, not to give up hope but to start the grieving process”, Steven Schoenly said.

Tote executives said the captain, Michael Davidson, planned a heading that would have enabled El Faro to bypass Joaquin if the ship hadn’t lost power.

Coast Guard officials made the announcement at a 3 p.m. news conference.

TOTE is cooperating with the investigation, said Pingree, and so far has provided the NTSB access to the El Faro’s sister ship, the El Yunque, which could help investigators learn about the unique characteristics of how the ship behaves during rough weather.

Robert Green, father of LaShawn Rivera, said the Coast Guard informed relatives Wednesday afternoon.

Schmiora Hill, whose cousin, Roosevelt Clark, was a crew member, said the decision was a awful mistake. People mingle near the Seafarer’s worldwide Union hall Tuesday, October 6, 2015, in Jacksonville, Fla., as they await news of the fate of the cargo ship El Faro. The crew reported the ship had previously taken on water, but that all flooding had been contained. Was the ship’s advanced age – more than 40 years old – a factor?

He would have had access to weather forecasts every few hours from the National Hurricane Center (NHC) giving the likely speed, strength and direction of the storm. She says they’re working with the Navy to bring out different equipment than what the Coast Guard was using- these will be more geared to finding the ship thousands of feet underwater instead of looking for survivors at sea level.