El Faro lifeboat winches serviced day of final voyage, surveyor says they didn't know

There was work done to the El Faro’s lifeboat winches just ahead of the ship departing Jacksonville on what would become her final voyage- and the vessel’s surveyor says they were never told.

For the first time Friday, the Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation probing the vessel's sinking cited a report for work to install new clutches on the lifeboat winches on the port and starboard side of the vessel. The work was done September 29^th, the day El Faro left Jacksonville.

“Would it have required ABS notification that this work was being done on the El Faro on this lifesaving davit break?” asked MBI Technical Advisor Commander Mike Odom.

“Yes,” says American Bureau of Shipping Assistant Chief Surveyor of the Americas Division Louis O'Donnell.

O’Donnell says, as far as he knows, ABS was not notified of this work.  If they had been, he says they would have required an ABS surveyor go out and examine the work on the vessel.

“Is it your understanding that there’s a mechanism in place that your surveyor would have held the vessel in port until he was able to observe a test?” asked MBI Chairman Captain Jason Neubauer.

“Yes, if they had been made aware, yes sir,” says O’Donnell.

He says if the vessel hadn’t been held in order for them to go do an inspection of the replacement, they could have pulled various certificates that would have in turn prevented El Faro from sailing.

The Board has frequently asked witnesses whether they had any knowledge of issues with the El Faro's lifeboat davits, and none have. These mechanisms specifically would be involved in lowering the lifeboats in order to get them to the right level to be boarded by the crew and launched.

One of the El Faro's lifeboats was found in the search and rescue missions following the sinking- it was badly damaged.

DOCUMENT: Coast Guard details efforts to find El Faro

TOTE Services Port Engineer Tim Neeson admitted to the Board that failing to notify either ABS or the Coast Guard about the replacement was “an oversight”.

“I just forgot to notify ABS about it, no reason to hide it,” he says.

Neeson says the swap was voluntary and that they were “working beautifully” after.

He told the Board he ordered the work because they had seen issues with the El Faro’s sister ship El Yunque’s davits. He had seen some deterioration on the El Faro’s davits, so out of concern the ship would ultimately face the same problem, he wanted to do the “preventative” maintenance. Neeson acknowledged to the Board that ABS was present for the work on El Yunque, and should have been for El Faro.

He says he was not facing any pressure because of wanting to see the ship depart on time.

TOTE Services asked Neeson about an inspection done about a month prior, by the same company who would later install the new davits. He says El Faro passed that annual inspection, however ABS confirms they were not told about that inspection either.

ABS is involved in surveying El Faro under the Alternate Compliance Program, which is a special inspection protocol that is designed to allow the Coast Guard to tap in to the work already being done by companies dealing with commercial vessels. ABS does about 90% of the work under ACP, according to the Coast Guard.

While several Coast Guard representatives say they've become increasingly reliant on using class societies to do the commercial work, they also admit there are problems with the program, including the degree of oversight they have.

If ABS had been notified of the lifeboat davit work, they would have also notified the Coast Guard. Neeson says he had no concerns about the safety of El Faro when she left Jacksonville.