JACKSONVILLE, Florida — U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, was briefed by National Transportation Safety Board Vice Chairman Bella Dinh-Zarr Wednesday morning and learned the U.S. Coast Guard will be calling off the El Faro search at the end of the day.
“They are going to announce at 3 p.m. that they are going to call off the search,” Pingree said after a 30-minute briefing with Dinh-Zarr. “I am going to talk to the admiral to ensure … that they continue as long as they can.”
Pingree met with Rear Admiral Scott Buschman, commander of the Coast Guard 7th District in Miami, earlier this week and expects to talk to him again later today about the search ending.
The likelihood that anyone will be found alive out at sea without water for a week is low, she said.
“That is certainly weighing heavily on everyone’s mind,” the congresswoman said. “Most of the family members who can be here are in Jacksonville. I know the company paid to have the families flown down. The company has met with them regularly, the Coast Guard has met with them and now the NTSB has a liaison.”
The U.S. Coast Guard will spend Wednesday searching for the El Faro’s 33-member crew, which includes at least four MMA graduates, Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios, a spokesman for the agency’s Seventh District in Miami, told the Boston Globe. One crew member’s body was found Tuesday along with a badly damaged life craft.
“We are still considering this a search and rescue at this point,’’ Rios said Wednesday morning.
The ship was captained by Michael Davidson of Windham, a 1988 graduate of Maine Maritime, and other crew members include Danielle Randolph, 34, of Rockland, a 2005 graduate; Michael Holland, 25, of Wilton, a 2012 graduate; and Dylan Meklin, 23, a 2010 graduate of Rockland High School, who graduated from Maine Maritime just in May of this year, the Bangor Daily News has confirmed.
The last communication between the 790-foot steamship and the mainland was made at 7:20 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 1, while en route from Jacksonville to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The cargo carrier lost propulsion and was listing after encountering Hurricane Joaquin north of San Salvador Island in the Bahamas, the captain said in his request for help.