Published on Oct 2, 2015
The Coast Guard is pulling out the stops in searching for a freighter with 33 crew members that’s gone missing near the center of Hurricane Joaquin. Officials say the ship went out of radio contact near the eye of the storm. (Oct. 2)
Mike Hanson, a spokesman for the owner of the ship, Tote Maritime Puerto Rico, told Reuters all contact with the vessel had been lost since Thursday morning, which he said was “very unusual,” especially as the ship was equipped with a marine transponder, a satellite phone and GPS locators on the containers. “We checked them all,” he said. Hanson said.
The El Faro, built in 1975, recently underwent a complete updating,