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Aye, El Faro. Remember few months ago when the Norwegian Cruise ship lost power and 1,300 passengers had to be evacuated by helicopter? That wasn't the only d

by pp19dd 7y ago

Aye, El Faro. Remember few months ago when the Norwegian Cruise ship lost power and 1,300 passengers had to be evacuated by helicopter? That wasn't the only disabled ship in the area due to the storm. Once NTSB releases a report, you might see this as a cause, fuel sloshing. Large ships are just not designed or meant to be in waves and it's not economical to design them to be. So you check weather far in advance and steer clear of it. El Faro's master looked at an old weather report regularly delayed by 12-18 hours or some such due to additional processing from BVS (his preferred software for checking weather) and didn't cross-check it with another source like NWS throughout the days, despite being challenged by the crew. He ended up steering the ship right into the eye of a hurricane.

YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago
Oh, yes- I remember the Norwegian ship. I don't remember the details- I'll keep an eye out for the report. Thanks. >> He ended up steering the ship right into the eye of a hurricane. I know. I've read the NTSB report. And the bridge transcript. Most harrowing thing I've ever read. I got the feeling though that there was fault with the land crew who tied down the cars in the holds inappropriately. If I remember correctly, first there was water in the holds, possibly from a burst pipe hit by a car moving about freely; then the cars started slipping around on the wet floor; then they started listing to port; then the oil pump gave up; then the captain turned his port to the wind to counter the list; then they lost power; and by that time they were in the eye wall of the hurricane and they were lost. Perhaps, if it hadn't been an old ship and if the cargo had been secured properly, we wouldn't know there ever was a ship with that name. Despite the captain's mistakes.
- pp19dd 7y ago
  It really was terrible. The audio transcription puts you right there and just wow. Like you said think it was a number of factors, but I think the other ones only compounded the situation after the master committed the ship to the float plan. He looked at an outdated weather report, didn't know the software options to plot the up-to-date hurricane overlay, company didn't permit any of the crew to have access to the ship's satellite phone (and presumably internet access that came with it) for a double check, then he dismissed a confrontation about the conflicting NWS report from the 2nd mate, then delayed pulling up updated information from his lagging weather report and went to sleep. The design of the ship played a factor too. It was a retrofitted RO/RO ship with waived safeties, and had ventilation hatches that apparently lowered the de-facto lowest-point-of-water-ingress (forgot the actual parameter name) underneath the unsecured hatches, which were - unsecured. Or unreliable. New engineer started doing maintenance mid-storm, lowering the engine's power output, and I think the loose cargo became a factor afterwards.

by pp19dd 7y ago

YeGoblynQueenne 7y ago

Oh, yes- I remember the Norwegian ship. I don't remember the details- I'll keep an eye out for the report. Thanks. >> He ended up steering the ship right into the eye of a hurricane. I know. I've read the NTSB report. And the bridge transcript. Most harrowing thing I've ever read. I got the feeling though that there was fault with the land crew who tied down the cars in the holds inappropriately. If I remember correctly, first there was water in the holds, possibly from a burst pipe hit by a car moving about freely; then the cars started slipping around on the wet floor; then they started listing to port; then the oil pump gave up; then the captain turned his port to the wind to counter the list; then they lost power; and by that time they were in the eye wall of the hurricane and they were lost. Perhaps, if it hadn't been an old ship and if the cargo had been secured properly, we wouldn't know there ever was a ship with that name. Despite the captain's mistakes.

pp19dd 7y ago
It really was terrible. The audio transcription puts you right there and just wow. Like you said think it was a number of factors, but I think the other ones only compounded the situation after the master committed the ship to the float plan. He looked at an outdated weather report, didn't know the software options to plot the up-to-date hurricane overlay, company didn't permit any of the crew to have access to the ship's satellite phone (and presumably internet access that came with it) for a double check, then he dismissed a confrontation about the conflicting NWS report from the 2nd mate, then delayed pulling up updated information from his lagging weather report and went to sleep. The design of the ship played a factor too. It was a retrofitted RO/RO ship with waived safeties, and had ventilation hatches that apparently lowered the de-facto lowest-point-of-water-ingress (forgot the actual parameter name) underneath the unsecured hatches, which were - unsecured. Or unreliable. New engineer started doing maintenance mid-storm, lowering the engine's power output, and I think the loose cargo became a factor afterwards.