The Coast Guard has begun an official hearing into the sinking of the cargo ship El Faro and the loss of 33 crew members, including five graduates from Maine Maritine Academy.
The hearing, which is expected to last two weeks, is being live-streamed from Jacksonville, Florida. Patty Wight has been monitoring the testimony and discussed what has unfolded so far with Nora Flaherty.
Nora: Patty, first let’s back up and remind us about what happened to the El Faro last fall.
Patty: Sure — El Faro departed from Jacksonville, Florida, bound for San Juan, Puerto Rico, on Sept. 29, the same day that tropical storm Joaquin began intensifying and moving toward the Bahamasm in the vicinity of El Faro’s route. Pretty quickly, Joaquin developed into a category 4 hurricane.
According to emails, the captain of the El Faro planned to pass about 65 miles south of the center of Joaquin. But by Oct. 1 the El Faro ran into trouble. It had a hull breach and started taking on water. It lost its main propulsion unit, and its last reported position was about 20 miles from the eye of the hurricane. It sank in about 15,000 feet of water and all 33 crew members were lost. That includes five graduates from Maine Maritime Academy, including the El Faro’s captain Mike Davidson.
Nora: So tell me what this hearing by the Marine Board of Investigation is about.
Patty: Well, anytime there’s a serious accident, the Marine Board of the Coast Guard investigates to try to understand the cause and figure out any changes that need to be made to improve safety. So the hearing is going to try to uncover whether there were any problems with the vessel itself, and whether there was any misconduct or negligence that led to this accident.
Nora: And I understand that the first day of the hearing focused mostly on background — the history of the El Faro, and the company that owned it, Tote Maritime.
Patty: That’s right. And the only person who testified was the vice president of operations for Tote Maritime, Philip Morrell. The board pointed out to Morrell that the El Faro was 40 years old and asked whether it was still safe to operate. There were some issues with the propulsion unit a few months earlier, but Morrell said that was due to human error. Morrell said that the El Faro was just as reliable as newer vessels, and that safety is a priority for Tote. He also said that safety is also the responsibility of the ship’s captain, and that the captain makes the final decision on when to voyage and what route to take.
Nora: And there are a lot of questions about the decisions captain Davidson made — why he decided to set out on the El Faro when there’s an impending hurricane.
Patty: Yes, some of the questions were about Davidson’s competency, and there were conflicting accounts. Marine Board investigators referenced an internal email from Tote that said there was dwindling confidence in Davidson’s abilities as a leader, but an evaluation from 2014 gave Davidson top scores. The board also asked whether Davidson needed to ask permission to change routes, and read an email from Davidson where he asked his superiors whether he could change the El Faro’s route. But Morrell insisted that captains only need to notify superiors of a change in course, but do not need permission.
Nora: So there are still a lot of unanswered questions.
Patty: That’s correct. A lot of Morrell’s responses were “I don’t know” or “I’m not sure.” He couldn’t recall whether he thought about the safety of El Faro because of Hurricane Joaquin. The board also pointed out that they had combed through thousands of emails, and though they sifted out a significant number relating to tropical storm Erika, which hit about a month earlier and caused the El Faro to change its route to Puerto Rico, the board only found a handful of emails about the implications of hurricane Joaquin. Morrell couldn’t explain why that was.
But the hearing is scheduled to last for 10 days, so more information will be coming out.
This interview was edited for clarity.
