Overconfidence, poor training sank El Faro: U.S. Safety Board
Source: Reuters
#U.S. DECEMBER 12, 2017 / 6:13 AM / UPDATED A DAY AGO
Overconfidence, poor training sank El Faro: U.S. Safety Board
Ian Simpson
3 MIN READ
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The sinking of the U.S. freighter El Faro in 2015 with the loss of 33 lives came after an overconfident captain set the ship and its poorly trained crew on a collision course with a hurricane, the National Transportation Safety Board said in its final report on Tuesday.
It was the worst U.S. maritime disaster in 30 years.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Robert Sumwalt said at the end of a day-long hearing that tracking the loss of the ill-fated ship on Oct. 1, 2015, was like watching a brewing storm.
“At first just a potential problem, then looming trouble, and finally, tragically, the disaster itself. The difference is, unlike storms, we humans can make conscious choices,” Sumwalt said.
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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ship-elfaro/overconfidence-poor-training-sank-el-faro-u-s-safety-board-idUSKBN1E618O
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Source: NTSB
Captain’s Decisions, Shipping Company’s Poor Safety Oversight Led to Sinking, NTSB Says
12/12/2017
WASHINGTON (Dec. 12, 2017) — The deadliest shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than 30 years was caused by a captain’s failure to avoid sailing into a hurricane despite numerous opportunities to route a course away from hazardous weather, the National Transportation Safety Board announced during a public meeting Tuesday.
The 790-foot, cargo vessel, S.S. El Faro, en route from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico, sank Oct. 1, 2015, in the Atlantic Ocean during Hurricane Joaquin, taking the lives of all 33 aboard.
“We may never understand why the captain failed to heed his crew’s concerns about sailing into the path of a hurricane, or why he refused to chart a safer course away from such dangerous weather,” said NTSB Chairman Robert L. Sumwalt. “But we know all too well the devastating consequences of those decisions.”
NTSB investigators worked closely with the U.S. military and federal- and private-sector partners to locate the wreckage, photo- and video-document the ship and related debris field, and recover the El Faro’s voyage data recorder from more than 15,000 feet under the surface of the sea.
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Read more: https://www.ntsb.gov/news/press-releases/Pages/PR20171212.aspx
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