The El Faro was on a list of vessels considered to be in need of more safety inspections, according to testimony on Monday at the hearing into the sinking of the cargo ship.
Speaking at the US Coast Guard (USCG) Marine Board of Investigation in Jacksonville, Florida, Captain Kyle McAvoy USCG Chief of Commercial Vessel Compliance said El Faro was on his office’s targeting list of ships needing extra inspection. The list was to have been released just days after the day El Faro sank.
McAvoy said the reason El Faro was put on the list was because of a marine casualty incident involving a crewmember’s health.
Much of Monday’s hearing, the sixth day of a potential 10, concerned the USCG’s Alternate Compliance and Safety Agreement Program (ACP) under which many vessel inspection jobs are outsourced to third parties because USCG lacks the resources to do them all itself.
Before the 1990s the USCG was doing all inspections itself.
Another witness, Captain John Mauger, Commanding Officer with the USCG Marine Safety Centre, told the hearing that the ACP had deficiencies including significant error rates and discrepancies in work done by third parties. But he drew no direct link to the El Faro case.
