The captain of the US cargo ship El Faro reported 'a hull breach' and said a hatch had blown open before the vessel sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane earlier this month, the National Transportation Safety Board has said.
In a recorded satellite phone call Captain Michael Davidson told the ship's owner he had 'a marine emergency' after taking on water in one of the holds, the NTSB said on Tuesday in an update on its two-week-old investigation of the sinking.
It said the captain also reported that the 40-year-old ship had lost its main propulsion unit and that engineers could not get it restarted.
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The vessel was making its way from Jacksonville, Florida to San Juan, Puerto Rico, when it encountered Hurricane Joaquin
The El Faro and its 33 mostly American crew members disappeared on October 1 after sailing into the path of Hurricane Joaquin while en route from Jacksonville, Florida, to Puerto Rico in the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a US-flagged vessel since 1983.
The crew, which vanished just north of Crooked Island in the Bahamas, consisted of 28 Americans and five Polish nationals aged between 23 and 54.
The ship's owner, New Jersey-based Tote Inc, has previously said the loss of propulsion is likely what doomed the ship as it was engulfed by high seas whipped up by Joaquin.