Vessel upright, stern buried in approximately 30 feet of sediment

Tue, 11/03/2015 - 10:00pm

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Updated Nov. 3) The National Transportation Safety Board Tuesday afternoon said that searches by a U.S. Navy remote operated vehicle have thus far documented both the port and starboard sides of the cargo ship El Faro, which sunk near the Bahamas Oct. 1 during Hurricane Joaquin, but the ship’s navigation bridge, the deck below and its data recorder have not been located.

The NTSB last month contracted with the Navy to locate El Faro, document the wreckage and debris field, and recover the voyage data recorder. Below is an update of recent activities, sent in a news release Nov. 3.

· The Curve 21 remote operated vehicle was used to confirm that the vessel found was the El Faro.

· The ROV documented both the port and starboard sides of the vessel.

· The vessel is oriented in an upright position, with the stern buried in approximately 30 feet of sediment.

· The navigation bridge and the deck below have separated from the vessel and have not been located.

· The voyage data recorder has not been located.

· The team has reviewed sonar scans of the nearby debris field and has not identified any targets that have a high probability of being the missing navigation bridge structure.

· Future plans are to redeploy the Orion side scan sonar system to generate a map of the debris field to locate the navigation bridge structure.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Updated Nov. 2) The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed Monday afternoon that the wreckage of the cargo ship El Faro has been found on the bottom of the ocean.

Eric Weiss, an NTSB public affairs officer, said in a news release that surveys of the area and wreckage of the vessel continue Nov. 2.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Updated Oct. 31) A search team on board the U.S. Navy ship Apache has found the wreckage of a vessel that the Navy believes to be the cargo ship El Faro, which went missing on Oct. 1 during Hurricane Joaquin. The vessel was located at a depth of about 15,000 feet in the vicinity of the last known position.

Sonar equipment towed from Apache first detected what are believed to be images of the vessel using Orion, a side-scanning sonar system, at about 1:36 p.m., Oct. 31, during the fifth of 13 planned search line surveys.

The National Transporation Safety Board issued a news release late Saturday night. Oct. 31.

To confirm the finding, specialists on Apache will use CURV 21, a deep ocean remotely operated vehicle, to survey and confirm the identity of the wreckage. This survey could begin as Sunday, November 1.

The target identified by Orion is consistent with a 790-foot cargo ship, which from sonar images appears to be in an upright position and in one piece.

Shortly after the National Transportation Safety Board opened its investigation into the accident, it contracted with the U.S. Navy to locate the missing ship, document the wreckage and debris field, and if possible, recover the voyage data recorder.

Apache departed Little Creek, Va., Oct. 19 after being fitted with a suite of state-of-the-art underwater detection equipment. On Oct 23, after arriving at the last known position of El Faro, specialists on Apache placed a towed pinger locator (TPL) into the water and began slowly traversing the area according to a preset search pattern in hopes of picking up sounds of the pinger from El Faro's voyage data recorder.

After three days without any indication of a pinger signal, the TPL was withdrawn from the ocean and Orion was put in the water in an attempt to locate El Faro with sonar technology, which creates sonar images from the processing of sound patterns.

If the vessel is confirmed to be El Faro, CURVE-21, outfitted with a video camera, will start the documentation of the vessel and the debris field and attempt to locate and recover the voyage data recorder. Those operations are expected to take up to 15 days to complete in ideal conditions but could take longer depending on weather and conditions encountered during the documentation process.

Additional investigative updates will be issued as circumstances warrant, the transportation safety board said.

More information and resources are available on the NTSB's webpage for the El Faro accident investigation: http://go.usa.gov/3Smre

Additional information regarding the equipment used by the US Navy is available on their website.

Orion: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4300&ct=4&tid=197
CURVE 21: http://www.navy.mil/navydata/fact_display.asp?cid=4300&tid=50&ct=4

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (Oct. 20) The National Transportation Safety Board issued an update Oct. 20 into its continuing investigation of the sinking of the cargo ship El Faro in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas, after Oct. 1, when radio contact with the ship was lost beyond 7:20 a.m. that morning.

The ship was sailing from Florida to Puerto Rico with a crew of 33, which are believed to have all perished. Items belonging to the ship were recovered in at least two debris field, along with an unidentifiable body and one of the ship’s rescue boats. The ship is believed to have sailed into Hurricane Joaquin.

In its update, the NTSB said it has developed the following factual information:

• On Feb. 13, 2015, El Faro successfully completed the American Bureau of Shipping class and statutory surveys, meeting all rules and regulations as applicable. All deficiencies identified were rectified prior to completion of the surveys. None of the deficiencies were associated with El Faro's main propulsion systems.

• The annual inspection of El Faro, required by the United States Coast Guard, was completed by qualified USCG inspectors in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on March 6, 2015.

• In June 2015, a qualified ABS surveyor examined and tested the main, auxiliary and emergency systems as part of the continuous machinery survey program and found them to be satisfactory.

• TOTE [TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico is the ship’s owner] told investigators that El Faro was scheduled to be removed from the route between Jacksonville and San Juan and redeployed to the U.S. West Coast where it would operate between Washington State and Alaska. In August, in order to prepare for this operational change, TOTE began to make modifications to the vessel while underway under the supervision of an additional chief engineer. Work on these modifications was performed by welders and machinists over many voyages, including during the accident voyage.

• On Sept. 11, 2015, TOTE received permission from the Coast Guard to shut down one of the ship's two boilers so it could be inspected by an independent boiler service company during a voyage between San Juan and Jacksonville. As a result of the inspection, the boiler service company recommended service to both boilers during an upcoming drydock period that had already been scheduled for Nov. 6, 2015. The boiler was returned to service following the inspection.

• Interviews of relief crew and company management indicated that onboard safety drills were consistently conducted on a weekly basis. These included lifeboat drills for all crewmembers to ensure that all on board understood their responsibilities in an emergency.

• Investigators interviewed two pilots that had guided El Faro in and out of the Port of Jacksonville; both reported that the vessel handled similarly to other vessels of its size and type.

• The vessel's terminal manager reported that El Faro met stability criteria when it left Jacksonville.

• The company's procedures called for some cargo on the ship to be "double lashed" regardless of the weather expected to be encountered during the voyage. The vessel stevedores reported that prior to El Faro's departure on the accident voyage, the cargo was secured in accordance with those procedures.

• Before El Faro departed Jacksonville, Tropical Storm Joaquin was predicted to become a hurricane and a marine hurricane warning was issued by the National Hurricane Center's Advisory #8 at 5:00 pm EDT on Sept. 29.

• At about 8:15 pm EDT on Sept. 29, El Faro departed Jacksonville, Fla., for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

• At 1:12 pm EDT on Sept. 30, the captain emailed a company safety official that he intended to take a route south of the predicted path of the hurricane and would pass about 65 miles from its center.

• In an advisory issued at 2 am EDT on Oct. 1, the National Hurricane Center predicted seas of 30 feet with sustained winds of 64 knots (74 mph), increasing to 105 knots (121 mph) as the El Faro approached the wall of the eye of the hurricane.

• In a recorded satellite phone call to the company's emergency call center at 7 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 operator then connected the captain with the Designated Person Ashore. The DPA told investigators that the captain had communicated similar information to him that was provided to the call center operator, and also that the captain had estimated the height of the seas that El Farowas encountering to be 10 to 12 feet.

• The USCG received electronic distress alerts from three separate sources on El Faro: the Ship's Security Alert System, the Inmarsat-C Alert, and the Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon.

• According to electronic alert system data sent by the vessel at 7:17 am EDT on Oct. 1, its last reported position was about 20 miles from the edge of the eye of the hurricane.

• The USCG did not have direct voice communications with El Faro, only electronic distress alerts.

• The NTSB investigators that traveled to Florida have returned to continue work on the investigation from NTSB headquarters in Washington.

• The NTSB contracted with the U.S. Navy to locate the ship, document the wreckage on the sea floor and recover the voyage data recorder.

• The USNS Apache, a fleet ocean tug, was outfitted with specialized equipment for this mission, and departed Little Creek, Va., at about 4:30 pm EDT on Oct 19. In addition to the Navy crew, the NTSB investigator-in-Charge, Tom Roth-Roffy, is on Apache with representatives from the USCG, TOTE and ABS, all parties to the NTSB investigation.

• The Apache is estimated to arrive at the last known position of El Faro on Saturday, Oct 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. The length of the operation will depend on the circumstances encountered.

• Updates on the search for the vessel and the accident investigation will be issued as circumstances warrant.

The El Faro crew included:

Delaware
Jeremie Riehm - Camden

Florida
Louis Champa - Palm Coast
Roosevelt Clark - Jacksonville
Brookie Davis - Jacksonville
Keith Griffin - Fort Myers
Frank Hamm - Jacksonville
Joe Hargrove - Orange Park
Carey Hatch - Jacksonville
Jack Jackson - Jacksonville
Jackie Jones, Jr. - Jacksonville
Lonnie Jordan - Jacksonville
Roan Lightfoot - Jacksonville Beach
James Porter - Jacksonville
Theodore Quammie - Jacksonville
Lashawn Rivera - Jacksonville
Howard Schoenly - Cape Coral
German Solar-Cortes - Orlando
Anthony Thomas - Jacksonville
Mariette Wright - St. Augustine

Georgia
Sylvester Crawford Jr. - Lawrenceville

Maine
Michael Davidson - Windham (Maine Maritime Academy graduate, Class of 1988)
Michael Holland - North Wilton (Maine Maritime Academy graduate, Class of 2012)
Dylan Meklin - Rockland (Maine Maritime Academy graduate, Class of 2015)
Danielle Randolph - Rockland (Maine Maritime Academy graduate, Class of 2005)

Massachusetts
Jeffrey Mathias - Kingston

New York
Mitchell Kuflik - Brooklyn (Maine Maritime Academy graduate, Class of 2011)

Tennessee
Steven Shultz - Roan Mountain

Virginia
Richard Pusatere - Virginia Beach

Poland
Piotr Krause
Marcin Nita
Jan Podgorski
Andrzej Truszkowski
Rafal Zdobych