Re: El Faro was a very large freighter
Posted by Chris in Tampa on 10/5/2015, 8:43 pm
When you have a preventable tragedy such as this, the only thing that can be gained, at least I hope, is the knowledge that taking chances like this with people's lives is never a good idea. The captain knew it was a hurricane. At least one crew member emailed their family saying they were heading straight for the hurricane.

They left Jacksonville Tuesday evening at 9:32pm. A little over an hour later a hurricane watch was issued for the Bahamas and the wind was forecast to be 100mph near the Bahamas.

At 5pm, before they left, the storm was already forecast to be a hurricane with sustained winds of 85mph to 90mph nearing the Bahamas.

At 5am Wednesday, the hurricane watch was expanded to the northwest Bahamas and a hurricane warning issued for the Central Bahamas. Right then they should have turned around, if not sooner.

Forecast winds from National Hurricane Center for what the hurricane was forecast to be near or over the Bahamas:

5pm, Tuesday: 85mph to 90mph
9:32pm, Tuesday: Ship leaves Jacksonville
11pm, Tuesday: 100mph
5am, Wednesday: 105mph
11am, Wednesday: 110mph
5pm, Wednesday: 110mph to 115mph
11pm, Wednesday: 140mph (intensity at this time was 115mph)
5am, Thursday: 140mph (intensity at this time was 120mph)
7:20am, Thursday: Last contact; Power was gone, was taking on water and listing fifteen degrees.

And for no reason at all, it's very likely that all 33 lives were lost.

Aside from other captains and companies learning from this horrible choice, I doubt much can be done to force them to not take chances like this. It will always be up to them to make decisions like this, although maybe some common sense will be applied next time.
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Container ship with 33 people aboard is missing in Joaquin - Chris in Tampa, 10/2/2015, 1:19 pm
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