Search for El Faro Crew Continues, Ship Believed Lost

The U.S. Coast Guard believes that the El Faro, a cargo ship lost Thursday in Hurricane Joaquin’s fury, sunk in rough conditions. A search for survivors, however, continues, the guard announced in a Monday news conference.

The 735-foot container ship was headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico, from Jacksonville when it became caught in the fury of Hurricane Joaquin near Crooked Island in the Bahamas, the U.S. Coast Guard reported. Watchstanders at the Coast Guard’s Atlantic Area command center in Portsmouth, Va., received the ship’s distress call around 7:30 a.m. Thursday. At that time, crew members said the ship had lost propulsion and had a 15-degree list.

“The crew reported the ship had previously taken on water, but that all flooding had been contained,” the Coast Guard wrote in a media release.

The distress call prompted a search and rescue mission that continued on Sunday. As of Sunday evening, the Coast Guard reported it was still searching the Caribbean Sea for the missing ship. Rescue crews had covered more than 70,000 square nautical miles in their search as of Sunday evening.

While guard members have found life jackets, rings, containers and an oil sheen within a 225 square nautical mile area, the ship itself has not been located. It has not yet been confirmed for certain, however, if the items found do indeed belong to the El Faro. A life suit with human remains was also found. The remains have yet to be identified.

The search for the El Faro has been conducted so far by Coast Guard crews from Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Virginia. Hurricane Joaquin has hampered some efforts, but the guard reported unrestricted visibility, 15 knot winds and only 1-foot seas during Sunday’s search. The U.S. Air Force and Navy has also lent personnel to the search-and-rescue mission.

This is a developing story. Refresh the page for updates as they become available.

Photo of a MH-60 refueling at sea during the search for the El Faro courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard