Michael Davidson News

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.

U.S. investigators stood in silence for 33 seconds on Friday as they concluded the public phase of a probe into the sinking of the El Faro cargo ship during a 2015 hurricane, recognizing each crew member aboard who died. The Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation, convened for the most serious accidents, heard two weeks of testimony in the last of a series of hearings on the worst disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than three decades. Captain Jason Neubauer, the panel's chairman, said it had collected sufficient evidence for a forthcoming analysis.

The U.S. investigation into the deadly sinking of a cargo ship during a 2015 hurricane entered its final hearing on Monday, with ship conditions probed at the start of two weeks of testimony set to examine new detail on El Faro's last hours. The Coast Guard's Marine Board of Investigation, convened only for the most serious accidents, is looking for evidence of negligence or misconduct in the worst disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than three decades. All 33 crew onboard died when the 790-foot (241-meter) El Faro sank during a hurricane on Oct. 1, 2015, two days after leaving Jacksonville, Florida on a cargo run to Puerto Rico.

The captain of a U.S.-flagged cargo ship that sank near the Bahamas last year, killing all 33 onboard, told a crew member that there was confusion about the location of the storm that doomed the vessel, a transcript released on Tuesday shows. The 790-foot (240-meter) El Faro sank on the morning of Oct. 1, 2015 in the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than three decades. The National Transportation Safety Board released the 510-page transcript and other data about the wreck, but said it was not yet ready to identify the cause behind the sinking, which came during a routine cargo run between Jacksonville, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

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 captain had said he planned to "go out and shoot under" a storm brewing in the Caribbean. Bryson is…

The U.S. investigation into the deadly sinking of the El Faro cargo ship during a hurricane last fall shifted direction on Friday, as the Coast Guard wrapped up its initial public hearings on the accident that killed all 33 people onboard. The agency will now wait to see if key evidence can be recovered from the shipwreck. In April, searchers will make a second attempt at finding a voyage data recorder that could provide detail on the ship's sinking off the Bahamas. The recorder…

The captain of the doomed El Faro warned that the "clock was ticking" as his cargo ship took on water in an Atlantic hurricane that would eventually sink the vessel, a U.S. Coast Guard panel heard on Saturday. Captain Michael Davidson pleaded for help as his ship, operated by Tote Services, sailed into the path of Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas, according to a recording of his final calls played at the hearing. He told an on-shore call center of a "maritime emergency," saying water breached the hull, entering three holds. Soon afterwards, contact with the ship was broken, and Davidson and 32 others were lost at sea. The sinking ranks as the worst disaster involving a U.S.-flagged cargo ship in more than three decades.

The widow of one of the 33 crew members killed when the El Faro sank in a hurricane last fall called on Friday for stricter oversight of decisions by shipping companies and their captains to sail in adverse weather. Rochelle Hamm's husband, 49-year-old Frank Hamm of Baltimore, died on Oct. 1 when the El Faro went down off the Bahamas in the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than three decades. The U.S. Coast Guard began hearings this week to investigate the sinking.

The captain of the U.S. cargo ship that sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane last fall, killing all 33 people on board, was responsible for decisions that put the vessel in the path of the storm, a shipping company executive testified on Tuesday. Captain Michael Davidson, a veteran mariner from Maine, was at the helm of the 790-foot (241-meter) El Faro for its doomed cargo run between Florida and Puerto Rico. The ship disappeared on Oct. 1 after he reported losing propulsion and taking on water. U.S.

The captain of the ill-fated cargo ship that sank in a hurricane off the Bahamas with no survivors last week was an experienced and highly trusted mariner who had spent a lifetime on the water, friends and colleagues said. The captain of El Faro, Michael Davidson of Windham, Maine, was raised in South Portland, alongside Maine's largest port, and spent summers nearby at a family home on an island in Casco Bay. The U.S. Coast Guard called off the search and rescue mission for the 28 American crew members and 5 Polish contract workers aboard El Faro on Wednesday night.

The ill-fated U.S.-flagged El Faro cargo ship sunk by Hurricane Joaquin was sailing at near full speed into the center of the storm before it lost propulsion amid mountainous waves and brutal winds, according to ship tracking data. The data on Thomson Reuters Eikon raises questions about the ship owner's assertion that the vessel's captain had chosen a "sound plan" to pass around Joaquin "with a margin of comfort" but was then thwarted by engineering problems. It shows that even…