Missing Ship El Faro.

[Chris Allman]

Heartless, disgusting and neglectful behavior in my opinion, I just cannot understand it, nor understand how it can be justified. The body should have been recovered, end of. I could perhaps understand it, if the body had been recovered and then buried at sea with reverence but I cannot accept that it was just abandoned without any recognition, dignity or solemnity, lost for words really, the Americans never cease to amaze me and in this instance totally disgust me.

[Jim Brady]

I have just sent the US Coastguard an e.mail telling them of this site and our members concerns for them not recovering the body.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

Thanks for that Jim
Brian

[Chris Allman]

Well done Jim and thank you.

[Keith at Tregenna]

It may not seem right, but I remember in my First Aid Training years ago to check vitals: No sign of life move on. Not conscious - Recovery position, move on. Noise as in pain, obviously alive, check if recovery position is needed, without causing further injury then move on. The intention is life saving.

Unconscious Casualties:

They are floating motionless and face down in the water. They need more care than others. Hence you should get any other casualty out of the water first.

Unconscious swimmers:

The reason for this is that an unconscious swimmer may have been in the water for some time already, and you may not be able to help them.

For water rescues the rule of thumb is to treat those making the least noise first, and the unconscious last. Once you handle the unconscious casualty you won't have a chance to help the others.

Hopefully: Jim will get a reply and we will know more:

EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE

Mass Casualty Triage*: Sorting and prioritizing injured victims for treatment and transport

(*-TRIAGE: a French word meaning to "sort" by priority or life-threatening nature of injury)

Many injured victims are present in the scenario. In order to expedite treatment to those most seriously injured, and avoid wasting resources on less seriously injured, a system of rapid "triage" or sorting has been developed called "Special Triage and Rapid Transport" or START. Victims can be quickly evaluated by emergency medical personnel. Initial findings such as vital signs (pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration, level of consciousness) are recorded on the triage tag, and then rechecked periodically thereafter to monitor the victim's status and to RETRIAGE* if their conditions becomes worse, or improves later. Responders are accountable for the identity and security of all victims present in the area of the incident. Such persons will not be allowed to leave the area until they are properly identified, evaluated, treated, transported to a medical treatment facility and/or medically cleared for release.

EMERGENCY MEDICAL RESPONSE

[Peter F Chard]

# 10 Brian, In my teens in Fleetwood ( Mid fifties ) one of the Fleetwood based Distant Water trawlers was homeward bound and for reasons best known to himself the Skipper decided to try a trawl in the Irish Sea, hoping to improve his fish landing. He did catch some fish but he also found the body of a crashed test pilot of a Harrier jet in the net. The Harrier jets were built locally at Warton from memory and were flight tested over that section of the Irish Sea. He threw the body back into the sea -- his reasoning was that if he had kept the body on board it would have had to be stored in the Fishroom, with his catch. This meant that he would automatically have had the whole catch condemned as unfit for consumption and thus no pay for that trip. The whole town was split on his actions, some thought he had done the correct thing in dumping the body, others thought that bringing the body back to shore and returning it to the family would bring closure to the family. Myself I thought he should have brought the body to shore -- anyone have any thoughts as to what the Skipper should have done ?? Regards, Peter in NZ.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Peter, I remember that event.
The Typhoon jet fighters still fly over by Fleetwood from Warton.
Regarding the body in the fish hold. I have been on ships where bodies have been store with the meat in Fridges and in cool rooms with the vegetables, as long as it is wrapped and not touching it is OK . after all the fish are also dead.

Cheers
Brian
Fleetwood is looking beautiful now, they have spent millions on it.

[Ivan Cloherty]

#15 Keith I read and understand what you have put, but as the swimmer had hold of the floating body and the swimmer had to be recovered there would, in my humble opinion, have been no delay and especially as no other bodies had been sighted in that area, so checking concious/unconcious was not applicable in this scenario.

#16 I would have thought that common decency would have made most, if not all, of us bring the body aboard, it is not as though he had to stow the body in the fish hold for a transatlantic voyage, he was close to his home port, at most he would have sacrificed financially only the net load of fish that he brought up with the body, by dumping the fish over the side and not the body.

I bet there were many occasions that that skipper regreted the action he took that day for the sake of a few more bob in his pocket.

When I was on trawlers in the 50's many a trawler had to bring back bodies recovered in the sea from around Iceland and Bear Island, no one would have even contemplated heaving them back into the sea to financially safeguard their catch, that skipper would never have found another crew to ship out with him. We respected the dead as much as the living

Glad I sailed with more stalwart people, who were prepared to put their lives at risk to save others, which happened on more than a couple of occasions, because we felt sure they would have done the same for us, had the situation been reversed.

[Des Taff Jenkins]

HI All.
I have been following this tragedy albeit with not much news on TV. Those divers are some of the most courageous people on earth anyone who has read the book about the Andrea Gail that disappeared in 80's will attest too it; in the rescue attempt of the crew of a downed rescue helicopter they had to make split second decisions, they lost one of their best swimmers.
If the sea was still really bad the decision that would have to be made was whether there were any other seamen alive if so, could they spare the time to attache the body, sometimes the sling will only hold one man, that could endanger the swimmer while waiting for the sling to come back down, and could they afford to carry a dead body, if they found enough people alive could the helicopter carry that number. Those decisions have to be made very quickly as everyone who has been in a severe storm would know. Not being there it is easy to make a judgment as to what should have been done. Hope fully a report on what occurred will be forth coming.
Cheers Des

redc.gif May they rest in peace

[moktay]

If anyone is interested there is Facebook Page, " I support the Merchant Marine, " which has a lot of information.