JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Coast Guard says its search will end Wednesday evening for 33 missing crew members from a U.S. cargo ship that sank last week during Hurricane Joaquin.
Officials said during an afternoon news conference that the Coast Guard will end its search for survivors from the El Faro at sunset. Officials had broken the news to relatives of the missing earlier in the day.
The 790-foot cargo ship sank Thursday off the Bahamas during Hurricane Joaquin, a Category 4 storm with 140 mph winds that was producing 50-foot waves. Officials said the ship's captain had plans to go around the storm as he headed from Jacksonville, Fla., to Puerto Rico but the El Faro suffered unexplained engine failure that left it unable to avoid the storm.
The Coast Guard had searched across a 300-square-mile expanse of Atlantic Ocean near Crooked Island in the Bahamas. Searchers found a body in a survival suit, but were unable to retrieve it. They also found an empty life raft, empty survival suits, a life ring and other debris.
The water in the area is 15,000 feet deep.