NTSB determines probable cause of El Faro tragedy

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The US National Transportation Safety Board yesterday released its report into the sinking of Tote’s El Faro containership in October 2015 en route from Jacksonville to San Juan in Puerto Rico. All 33 crewmembers and passengers drowned, and the report is not the faint-hearted. The NTSB places most of the blame on the captain’s poor decision-making and a lack of oversight on the part of the shipping line. Despite mounting concerns over worsening weather, the captain is said to have steered the 1975-built vessel straight into Hurricane Joaquin, a decision Tote Maritime failed to reverse. “The captain, consulting outdated weather forecasts and ignoring the suggestions of his bridge officers to take the ship farther south and away from the storm, ordered a course that intersected with the path of a hurricane that pounded the ship with 35ft seas and 100 mph winds,” it says.