The search for survivors from a missing cargo ship goes on into the night, but so far, crews have found only one body.
The container ship El Faro disappeared Thursday in the Bermuda Triangle shortly after it found itself in trouble and in the path of Hurricane Joaquin.
Family members of the 28 missing US crew members aboard El Faro want to know why the cargo ship sailed straight into the eye of Hurricane Joaquin as it intensified near the Bahamas. Cynthia Hill is the aunt of one of the missing crew members. She told CBS News that she wants "them to tell [her] why they let the boat go out knowing there was a mechanical problem." Rochelle Hamm is the wife of another crew member asking, “I don’t know why they didn’t just steer the ship in a different direction. This is totally unacceptable.”
El Faro was headed to Puerto Rico. It carried a heavy load of 391 containers and 294 trailers and automobiles when it encountered ferocious winds and 50-foot seas. It sent out a distress call that it lost power. It was its last communication.
The coast guard believes 53 year-old captain Michael Davidson thought he could outrun the storm. A former naval officer says the ship didn't stand a chance. “It's not that they shouldn't have left, said retired naval officer William Kurtz, “It's that they shouldn't have gone the route they went. They should have gone around the storm. There was plenty of room to the east to go around the storm.
So far, the coast guard has found one body wearing a survival suit, pieces of a life boat that could hold 43 people, life rings and an oil slick. Coast guard cutters, commercial tugboats, planes and choppers are searching for the missing. The National Transportation Safety Administration will send a crew to Jacksonville tomorrow to conduct an investigation.
CBS News
