NTSB releases chilling video recreating El Faro’s final hours before it sank

Sinking of US Cargo Vessel SS El Faro © NTSBgov

Here's an absolutely bone-chilling video (below) from the National Transportation Safety Board, recreating the sinking of the container ship El Faro in a hurricane off the Bahamas in October, 2015, with the loss of all 33 people on board.

It shows the drama of the ship's last 26 hours, with the hurricane's track, the ship's track and the real-time decisions by the captain who overruled his mates who asked him several times to change course. In releasing the video, NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said the captain failed to change course "despite three calls to his quarters indicating that the El Faro was heading into a storm." He also said the captain had a "light regard" for the crew's suggestions and relied on "outdated" weather information.

But it's the timeline that shows the increasing inevitability of the disaster. At first the crew reports water coming into the hold, then the ship starts listing, then cars in the cargo hold came loose, then the ship lost propulsion, then the cars start floating, then the captain finally sends a distress signal, and then the end. In an earlier investigation, the U.S. Coast Guard said the sinking was "one of the worst maritime disasters in U.S. history."

This article has been provided by the courtesy of Cruising Odyssey