Search for El Faro Survivors Will End Tonight, Relatives Say

Relatives of the 33 crew members who are missing after a cargo ship sank near the path of Hurricane Joaquin said the search for the crew members will be suspended today.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been in charge of the search for survivors and relatives of the missing confirmed that they had been told by authorities that the search will stop at 6 p.m. tonight.

"Any decision to suspend a search is painful in this particular case: we were searching for fellow professional mariners," Coast Guard chief of response Capt. Mark Fedor said, confirming the end of the search this afternoon.

He detailed how search crews repeatedly flew into the storm in dangerous conditions in an effort to try and save crew members, but to no avail.

"I want all the families to know how committed we were to finding their loved ones," he said.

The ship, called El Faro, sent a distress signal Thursday morning but no rescue boats were able to get close to the ship because weather conditions at the time were so harrowing due to the hurricane.

The storm impacted the search for the survivors as well since Hurricane Joaquin stayed in the area through much of Friday and into Saturday, meaning that the first full day of search and rescue did not start until Sunday, Coast Guard chief of response Capt. Mark Fedor said Monday.

During that time, rescue teams did find one body in a survival suit, but it was "unidentifiable."

That person's remains were not recovered, as Fedor said that the rescuers were being called to other reports of signs of life, so after checking that the individual was deceased, they moved on in hopes of saving someone else, Fedor said Monday.

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