Coast Guard: El Faro sank

The US Coast Guard says it believes a missing TOTE Maritime ro-ro sank in the Bahamas after its distress call late last week, but the search for the vessel's crew continues.

5 October 2015 15:46 GMT Updated 8 October 2015 11:43 GMT

By Eric Martin

The the 5,330-lane-metre El Faro (built 1975) has been missing since Thursday, when it issued a mayday call during Hurricane Joaquin.

"For our search planning efforts, we are assuming that the vessel ... sank. We believe it sank on the last known position that we recorded on Thursday," said Coast Guard Captain Mark Fedor.

"What that means, though, we just change our search planning efforts.