Final El Faro hearing looks at ship’s stability, final hours
The Coast Guard captain overseeing the investigation into the sinking of the cargo ship El Faro listened to all 26 hours of the audio recovered from the ship, including the harrowing moments as some crew members realized their fate.
“It was extremely difficult. It was very emotional for me and the other team members that were involved, but we all felt it was important to listen to it,” said Capt. Jason Neubauer, chairman of the Marine Board of Investigation appointed by the Coast Guard commandant to investigate the tragedy. “And in the end, it definitely strengthened our resolve to complete the investigation.”
Neubauer and his team of experts return to Jacksonville this week for the third and final twoweek hearing into the Oct. 1, 2015, sinking that killed all 33 on board. Many of the crew members lived in Northeast Florida. Their families are among those who have faithfully attended the hearings, which have been extremely emotional at times and heavily technical at others.
Neubauer communicates with the families of those lost. He said some family members even recommended witnesses for the Marine Board to call to testify and that there “are a couple of witnesses that we are bringing in due to that feedback.” He did not elaborate.
The hearing will be the last as investigators will move from the fact-finding phase to the analysis phase, but it is the first hearing since federal investigators recovered the ship’s voyage data recorder and its 26 hours of audio and data from the ocean floor.
The hearing will include discussion of the 10 hours of pertinent audio that has been transcribed. Witnesses will include former crew members, officials with ship owner and operator Tote Services Inc., and Coast Guard officials.
The audio contains crucial details about the actions of the crew and condition of the ship in its final hours. Captain Michael Davidson ordered the crew to abandon ship into Hurricane Joaquin as the El Faro was sinking.
Neubauer said the abandonship order stood out to him as a key moment from the audio.
“That just shows that the event occurred over time. It wasn’t just a sudden capsizing. They had some time to evaluate the situation and try to abandon ship,” he said.
With this being the last opportunity to gather facts, Neubauer said, there is going to be a wide range of witnesses. One of the key witnesses, Neubauer said, will be one of the Marine Board team members, Jeff Stettler.
Stettler will present an overview of his stability analysis of the El Faro, using data including the load on the ship when it left Jacksonville and the ship’s design to evaluate the condition of the ship on its final voyage.