October 5th, 2015 MIAMI – The US Coast Guard held a press briefing at 10:00am providing updated information on the search for the El Faro at Coast Guard Air Station Miami, at 10 a.m. Monday.
CNN – By Eliott C. McLaughlin and Kevin Conlon – The U.S. Coast Guard is no longer searching for the missing cargo ship El Faro but focusing on any signs of survivors. Searchers have found life rafts and survival suits, including one survival suit with human remains, Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor said Monday. The body inside the survival suit was unidentifiable, he said.
Published on Oct 5, 2015 US Coast Guard Press Conference on Sinking Ship El Faro and Search and Rescue Operations
U.S. Coast Guard aircraft searched Saturday in the waters of the southeastern Bahamas for a cargo ship with 33 people on board that lost power and began taking on water as powerful Hurricane Joaquin roared across the sprawling archipelago.
The crew of the El Faro, 28 from the U.S. and five from Poland, reported that the ship was listing at 15 degrees before they lost contact with authorities as the ship passed near the lightly populated Crooked Island at the height of the storm. Coast Guard officials dispatched planes and helicopters to the area with the storm now moving to the northeast away from the Bahamas.
The 790-foot (241-meter) El Faro was heading from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico when it was battered by 20- to 30-foot waves (up to 9-meter) as Joaquin was a Category 4 storm. It later weakened to a Category 3 before regaining strength again on Saturday.