No sighting of lifeboat yet as multiple aircraft and ships search the area for TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico ship and crew.
Update: Sunday 7 P.M. EDT
The U.S. Coast Guard said search and rescue crews have located multiple objects in the water in their search for the missing TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico cargo ship El Faro including life jackets, life rings, containers and an oil sheen.
TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico said its second ship El Yunque and a contracted tugboat have reached the area between the last known vicinity and the location where the Coast Guard recovered a life ring from the ship (a short video of the life ring recovery has been posted on the Coast Guard twitter site) yesterday and have found a container that appears be from El Faro and observed what appears to be an oil sheen. The life ring was found 75 from the El Faro’s last known position.
“At this time there has been no sighting of the El Faro or any life boats,” said Tim Nolan, President of TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico on Sunday “Our thoughts and prayers remain with the 33 individuals aboard the ship and their families. They are our number one priority.”
Late Sunday the Coast Guard said it has found debris such as styrofoam, wood, cargo, container doors, and what may have been part of a ship fendering system or buoy spread over 225 square miles, but it was not clear if this debris was from the El Faro or other sources.
On Sunday the Coast Guard used two HC-130 Hercules airplane
from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida, the Coast Guard Cutter
Northland, homeported in Portsmouth, Virginia, and an MH-60 Jayhawk
from Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida in its search for the ship and crew. In addition the Coast
Guard cutters Charles Sexton and Resolute are en-route to assist with the search and the Navy and Air Force are assisting.
Sea and weather conditions during Sunday’s search are much improved: one-foot seas and 15 knots winds with unrestricted visibility.
Aircraft were not expected to continue to search at night, but the cutters will continue the search.
Update: Saturday, 8 p.m. EDT
The Coast Guard said it still has not located the cargo ship El Faro which was caught up in Hurricane Joaquin on Thursday morning. Chief Petty Officer Bobby Nash said a life ring from the TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico ship was located Saturday afternoon, first by a fixed wing aircraft and then by a helicopter and that the Coast Guard with the help of the company was able to confirm the ring came from the ship.
TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico President Tim Nolan shared the information with the families of crew members gathered at the Seafarers International Union Hall in Jacksonville, FL earlier this evening.
“Earlier today, the Coast Guard confirmed that they located a life ring floating at sea which was identified as belonging to the EL Faro. A HC-130 plane spotted the ring and a H60 helicopter confirmed it was able to retrieve the ring and the ring was stenciled with markings from the El Faro,” TOTE said.
“While this reflects that the ship was caught in rough seas and extreme weather, it is in no way indicative of the ship’s fate. In fact, it helps confirm the El Faro’s possible location and helps the USCG confirm the search areas. Small items such as life rings and life jackets are lost at sea frequently, particularly in rough weather.”
It said the Coast Guard will be announcing search plans for Sunday in due course.
Three Coast Guard C130s and a MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter searched through the day on Saturday and were assisted by two Navy P-8 aircraft. “It has been a challenging day because of the storm and how big it is,” said Chief Petty Officer Ryan Doss. The planes will not fly at night because of the dangerous conditions and the need to fly close to the ocean.
Nash said aircraft searched 30,000 square miles, flying at 500 to 1,000 feet, beneath the cloud ceiling.
At times aircraft were forced to fly higher at other times because of the poor weather. Winds ranged from 60 to 100 knots and ocean swells were 30 to 40 feet high.
A C-130 pilot describing the search in a video said it was “the most challenging weather conditions anyone in our crew had ever flown in. His plane got within 50 miles of the eye of Hurricane Joaquin and that visibility from was limited at time to less than a quarter mile.
The ship sent message on Inmarsat message on Thursday morning that the ship had lost propulsion and had a 15 degree list. The crew said the ship had previously taken on water but that all flooding had been contained. The Coast Guard also received a brief emergency position indicating radio beacon or “EPIRB” signal, but no sustained signal has been received, said Doss.
The Coast Guard is searching for a U.S.-flag containership with 33 crew members on board that is reported to have been caught in Hurricane Joaquin near Crooked Island, Bahamas.
The ship is the 735-foot long El Faro, which carries both container and roll-on/roll-off cargo between Jacksonville, Fla. and San Juan, Puerto Rico and is operated by TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, formerly known as Sea Star Line.
The 1974-built El Faro sailed from Jacksonville Tuesday en route to San Juan.
Tim Nolan, president of TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico said, “as of 7:20 a.m. EST on Thursday, Oct. 1, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico lost all communication with the El Faro. The U.S. Coast Guard was immediately notified and since then we have been unable to reestablish communication. There are a number of possible reasons for the loss of communications among them the increasing severity of Hurricane Joaquin.”
The Coast Guard said watchstanders at its Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, Virginia, “received an Inmarsat satellite notification stating the El Faro was beset by Hurricane Joaquin, had lost propulsion and had a 15-degree list. The crew reported the ship had previously taken on water, but that all flooding had been contained.”
Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios said HC-130 aircraft have been launched out of Clearwater, Fla. to search for the ship and that the Coast Guard cutter Northland is also steaming toward the ship’s last known location, but he noted “it is increasingly difficult for us” to keep searching without also endangering Coast Guard rescuers because of the bad weather.
Two Air Force C-130 Hurricane Hunter aircrews attempted to locate and reestablish communications with the El Faro unsuccessfully Thursday.
Coast Guard Captain Mark Fedor told WJXT reporter Aaron Kumasi that on Friday, the Coast Guard put a C-130 Hercules aircraft as close to the hurricane as possible to see if it can spot the ship. Fedor said the aircraft can fly much lower than the Hurricane Hunter aircraft, which fly at 10,000 feet to take measurements of the storm. The Coast Guard C-130 is flying at 2,000 feet, Fedor said.
“(That) is absolutely pushing the operational envelope of what they’re supposed to fly, pushing their safety limits to try to lay some eyes on this vessel,” said Fedor. “They’re using a very sophisticated radar system to try to penetrate the precipitation and the wind and the sea state and try to locate that vessel.”
They haven’t spotted it yet, Fedor said, but they are working toward its last known position.
Of the 33 crew members, 28 are U.S. citizens and five are Polish nationals.
“TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico’s primary concern is for the safety and well-being of the 33 individuals on board. We are working to ensure clear and frequent communications with their families and loved ones as we learn more,” Nolan said. “We have reached out to the families of those impacted and have established open lines of communication to provide them with timely updates. Our thoughts and prayers are with the individuals and their families.”
Meanwhile, the Coast Guard said one of its helicopter crews were able the rescue 12 mariners from another ship hit by heavy weather near the Bahamas.
The Coast Guard 7th District Command Center said the mariners abandoned the Bolivian-flagged cargo ship Minouche Thursday evening after it began taking on water and listing 30 degrees to port.
The 212-foot cargo ship also beset by heavy weather
from Hurricane Joaquin Thursday evening.
The Coast Guard received a relayed message from Her Majesty’s Coast Guard, who received an Inmarsat satellite message stating crew were making preparations to abandon ship.
The Coast Guard immediately diverted the Coast Guard Cutter Northland and launched a helicopter crew forward deployed in Great Inagua, Bahamas. A good Samaritan vessel and member of the Automated Mutual Assistance Vessel Rescue System, commonly referred to as AMVER, was also diverted to the vessels last known position.
At approximately 10:30 p.m., Thursday, the AMVER arrived on scene and located all 12 mariners aboard a liferaft. The Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk rescue helicopter crew arrived on scene, hoisted the survivors and transported them to Great Inagua, with no major medical concerns.
