USCG EL FARO hearings part deaux

Professional Mariner Forum
1

is this what we are still going to get from these bozos? Was there any reason to have believed the second round of hearings would have been any different that the first? Obviously not!

[B]Captain of Doomed El Faro Thought He Could Avoid Hurricane, Investigation Board Hears[/B]

May 16, 2016 by Reuters

TAMPA, Fla., May 16 (Reuters) – U.S. Coast Guard investigators on Monday resumed a probe of last year’s deadly sinking of the El Faro off the Bahamas, beginning two weeks of hearings to examine the cargo ship’s operations, weather forecasts and regulatory oversight.

Captain Eric Bryson, who helped launch the El Faro on its final voyage, told the Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation panel that the ship’s doomed captain had said he planned to “go out and shoot under,” meaning avoid, a storm brewing in the Caribbean.

He was among some two dozen experts set to testify during a second round of hearings on the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than three decades.

The 790-foot (241-meter) ship sank off the Bahamas during a hurricane on Oct. 1, two days after leaving Jacksonville before the storm intensified into a hurricane.

“There was nothing out of the ordinary,” said Captain James Fudaker, a docking pilot who also worked with the ship before it departed for Puerto Rico. He testified that he was not aware of equipment deficiencies.

Testimony from a former master of the ship also offered little insight into what went wrong.

“To me, the El Faro was a Cadillac. She rode well,” Captain Eric Axelsson told the panel, adding that he did not consider the vessel vulnerable.

During its first meeting in February, the Coast Guard panel heard the final phone call of the ship’s captain, Michael Davidson, a veteran mariner from Maine, who warned that the “clock was ticking” as his vessel took on water.

Executives with ship operator Tote Services have said the captain was responsible for decisions leading to the disaster.

The Coast Guard panel is looking for evidence of negligence or misconduct and the cause of the sinking. Convened only for the most serious disasters, the panel plans a third set of hearings at a yet unscheduled date.

By then, it hopes to have evidence from the ship’s voyage data recorder, which may contain detailed information from the vessel’s final hours. The recorder has been located in 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) of water off the Bahamas, but authorities have not been able to retrieve it.

Ultimately, the Coast Guard panel expects to issue a report and could make recommendations aimed at preventing another disaster.

This is ridiculous…of course the master thought he could dodge the storm! What we need to find out is why he did not stop when he had the chance and why the damned plant went down?

2

Why a second hearing when no new info is likely to be presented. Why not spend the effort and money on recovering the now located VDR, where there MAY be some useful info.

3

Well, I am sure glad that they have a EXPERT Captain like Capt. Jack Hearn to testify. (Sarcasm) Man, he sure likes to talk about how good he is / was.

4

Here’s the schedule. Should be a Media Kit available later today.

5

What sort of delusional thought processes are going on here?

“To me, the El Faro was a Cadillac. She rode well,” Captain Eric Axelsson told the panel, adding that he did not consider the vessel vulnerable.

That kind of thinking should have died a thousand deaths on April 15, 1912.

6

[QUOTE=ombugge;184603]Why a second hearing when no new info is likely to be presented. Why not spend the effort and money on recovering the now located VDR, where there MAY be some useful info.[/QUOTE]

The plans are underway to do just that. Since the VDR was found attached to a mast, the challenge is to recover it safely, without damaging or losing it.

7

[QUOTE=Tugs;184604]Well, I am sure glad that they have a EXPERT Captain like Capt. Jack Hearn to testify. (Sarcasm) Man, he sure likes to talk about how good he is / was.[/QUOTE]

I can’t watch but someone relayed to me that Jack Hearn got his legs taken out from under him on the last few questions. A Mrs. Davidson was mentioned. Did any one see this?

8

[QUOTE=RespectMyAuthority;184611]I can’t watch but someone relayed to me that Jack Hearn got his legs taken out from under him on the last few questions. A Mrs. Davidson was mentioned. Did any one see this?[/QUOTE]

I caught part of that. They asked him if he’d been fired and he insisted he was not fired but left of his own volition. Did I hear something about a drug smuggling bust, too? What was that about. I am streaming at a hotel so it buffers occasionally.

9

[QUOTE=RespectMyAuthority;184611]I can’t watch but someone relayed to me that Jack Hearn got his legs taken out from under him on the last few questions. A Mrs. Davidson was mentioned. Did any one see this?[/QUOTE]

Yep, I sure did. It was something about the El Moro’s Crew getting caught trying to bring in a bunch of Kilos of drugs. Hearn’s reply was you are not reading all of that letter. Davidsons’ Lawyer, do you want me to read the entire thing, Hearn, NO. Plus when he was asked about the two CE’s aboard being highly qualified, he replied NO. What a Fucking Prick, you should never slander the DEAD!

10

Here is a link to an news article on Heran’s testimony and the El Moro’s problem involving Drugs…

11

[QUOTE=catherder;184608]The plans are underway to do just that. Since the VDR was found attached to a mast, the challenge is to recover it safely, without damaging or losing it.[/QUOTE]

If I understand this right; one strap is broken and one remain intact, keeping the VDR attached to the mast structure?

Yes it is 15000 ft down, but an ROV with two manipulator arms should be able to unlatch the VDR and secure it from “drifting” away at the same time.

Alternatively; to secure it to the mast structure and attach a lifting wire to the structure to be recovered as well.

Yes this require equipment able to work efficiently at such depth and a vessel able to support such equipment, but we are not talking about any major weights, or anything outside the capabilities of a work ROV / AHC winch available in the Offshore Industry, or on some research vessels. Or a combination can be made up from both?

Maybe the “problem” is more bureaucratic then technical?? (I know there are some here with other ideas for the “reason”)

12

[QUOTE=ombugge;184615]If I understand this right; one strap is broken and one remain intact, keeping the VDR attached to the mast structure?

Yes it is 15000 ft down, but an ROV with two manipulator arms should be able to unlatch the VDR and secure it from “drifting” away at the same time.

Alternatively; to secure it to the mast structure and attach a lifting wire to the structure to be recovered as well.

Yes this require equipment able to work efficiently at such depth and a vessel able to support such equipment, but we are not talking about any major weights, or anything outside the capabilities of a work ROV / AHC winch available in the Offshore Industry, or on some research vessels. Or a combination can be made up from both?

Maybe the “problem” is more bureaucratic then technical?? (I know there are some here with other ideas for the “reason”)[/QUOTE]

It’s the NTSB behind the whole recovery effort with WHOI as the entity doing the field work. Who would have the muscle to stop the NTSB from retrieving the data recorder? Surely not TOTE?

13

[QUOTE=Tugs;184614]Here is a link to an news article on Heran’s testimony and the El Moro’s problem involving Drugs…

http://www.wokv.com/news/news/local/el-faros-sister-ship-saw-alleged-drug-smuggling-an/nrPFT/[/QUOTE]
The part that I found funny in this was “He says, after waiting a year and a half, the company offered to settle where his record is cleared and they part ways- he accepted.” I call bullshirt on that. What company goes back and clears the record?

14

Here’s a little more detail on Hearn, apparently the “incident” he was canned over was the 43 kilos of yayo found by Customs.

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/ap_news/us/ex-ship-captain-says-he-was-fired-after-airing-safety/article_bcb14259-da2d-5ba9-9131-18e03be470b3.html

15

[QUOTE=catherder;184624]Here’s a little more detail on Hearn, apparently the “incident” he was canned over was the 43 kilos of yayo found by Customs.

http://www.dailyrecordnews.com/ap_news/us/ex-ship-captain-says-he-was-fired-after-airing-safety/article_bcb14259-da2d-5ba9-9131-18e03be470b3.html[/QUOTE]

According to him, he was let go because of the holes that he reported in the El Morro. I wonder what he says the other captain and two chief mates that were let go for at the same time?

16

Good question, RMA. Usually, when confronted with two divergent versions of something, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

17

If you snort to much blow it will eat hole through your nose…so I’ve been told. It stands to reason if you stow to much yayo in a particular space repeatedly it will eat a hole through the steel.

18

[QUOTE=catherder;184631]Good question, RMA. Usually, when confronted with two divergent versions of something, the truth is somewhere in the middle.[/QUOTE]
That is true in many cases. There are also many instances when a person is let go, it is never their fault. That person usually will grasp at straws to try to maintain a sense of self-worth.

19

yet more meaningless claptrap smoke being blown up our asses here. Tender or stiff, the EL FARO went into great peril where no lashings of the cargo could hold. If she was too stiff, then the tangential accelerations would snap the lashings like they were made of string and too tender, the vessel likely rolled onto her beam ends where the lashings could not hold that the tremendous angle of heel. Lashings are by their very nature not unbreakable. Even something welded to a deck can breakfree with enough force. THIS SHOULD ONLY BE ABOUT WHY THE MASTER TOOK THE SHIP IN SUCH PERIL AND WHAT MIGHT HAVE CAUSED THE PLANT TO GO DOWN WHERE AND WHEN IT DID? BOTH WERE WHAT CAUSED THE LOSS AND NOTHING ELSE!

[B]El Faro stability questioned[/B]

By Kirk Moore 5/17/2016

The ro/ro containership El Faro and sister ship El Morro could be very tender and slower to recover from rolls when heavily loaded, a characteristic that led its officers to add more margin of safety when calculating the effects of loading, a former captain testified Tuesday to the Coast Guard marine board of inquiry investigating the Oct. 1, 2015 sinking in Hurricane Joaquin that killed all 33 crew.

Capt. Jack Hearn, who worked on TOTE Maritime ro/ro ships for years in the Alaska trade, recalled the differences when he moved to TOTE’s Sea Star Line division and sailed on the Ponce-class ships for the Jacksonville, Fla., to San Juan, Puerto Rico, service.

In a straight ro/ro configuration, the TOTE vessels “were excellent ships…they handled well,” Hearn said. The combined ro/ro with container cargo is “more of a different animal, especially in rough weather,” he told the board.

"The ship was very tender,” a tendency he could feel with rudder commands, recalled Hearn who served on the line in 2007, 2009-2011 and 2012, when he charted a course to avoid Hurricane Sandy in October of that year.

When the ships rolled, they came back with “a very slow return,” Hearn said. “You could feel the ship as it leaned over.”

Board members questioned Hearn at length about stability, and he related how the ship’s metacentric height – a measure of initial static stability, expressed as GM – was modified in response to the ship movements observed by him and his officers. They added an additional 0.5’ in height to GM at departures as an extra margin of safety, Hearn said.

“The Rocan (roll on/roll off/container) ship, especially if it’s heavily loaded, is slower to react,” Hearn said. Under questioning, he described how that could be a problem in bad weather.

“Once you get to about 15 degrees (roll) things can start moving quicker,” Hearn said. “Cargo can stay in its place even at 30 degrees,” but at that extreme there are lots of stresses on cargo lashings, he added.

Even with an extreme list, “you would still have positive stability…that factor is quite large to destabilize a ship,” Hearn said, noting he had no reason to doubt the basic stability calculations for the Ponce-class vessels.

In testimony Monday, Jacksonville pilots who took the El Faro out on its final departure testified about what they saw and heard, including captain Michael Davidson’s plan to take the ship west and south of Hurricane Joaquin’s projected path. But the ship suffered a major casualty of its main power plant, leaving it a target for the storm.

James Franklin, chief of the hurricane specialist unit at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, began testifying later in the afternoon, explaining how the predictive models used by forecasters can vary widely in their use of data and basic assumptions. The board is looking at whether Davidson had adequate information from the NHC about the storm’s strength, speed and direction.

Hearn offered some of his experience with Sandy and other storms, such as using radar to deduce building seas state and wind at a distance. At a first round of Coast Guard hearings in February, there was discussion of whether the El Faro would have been safer on a different course west of the Bahamas.

“You have a great barrier there in the Bahama Bank,” Hearn said. But proximity to islands can be a danger too when captains need sea room to out-maneuver a storm – and hedge against weather forecasts, he said.

During Sandy, Hearn said, he headed farther out into the Atlantic and headed south to get sea room.

“If you get into the grip of the storm, where you start losing speed…you can get trapped in the conditions and the storm gets closer and closer,” he said. “With wind speeds force 7 (30 to 34 knots) and above, you’re going to have big seas very quickly.”

frankly, this entire charade is becoming painful to witness

20

[QUOTE=c.captain;184639]yet more meaningless claptrap smoke being blown up our asses here. Tender or stiff, the EL FARO went into great peril where no lashings of the cargo could hold. If she was too stiff, then the tangential accelerations would snap the lashings like they were made of string and too tender, the vessel likely rolled onto her beam ends where the lashings could not hold that the tremendous angle of heel. Lashings are by their very nature not unbreakable. Even something welded to a deck can breakfree with enough force. THIS SHOULD ONLY BE ABOUT WHY THE MASTER TOOK THE SHIP IN SUCH PERIL AND WHAT MIGHT HAVE CAUSED THE PLANT TO GO DOWN WHERE AND WHEN IT DID? BOTH WERE WHAT CAUSED THE LOSS AND NOTHING ELSE!

frankly, this entire charade is becoming painful to witness[/QUOTE]

I agree. I don’t see that there is anything more to gain from these hearings. Well except it keeps lawyers and “expert” consultants in the green.