Washington, DC – The loss of a rudder appears to have caused the F/V Alaska Ranger to take on water, and then sink in the Bering Sea on Easter Sunday 2008. The National Transportation Safety Board met in Washington, D.C. Wednesday to go over findings, and issue its conclusions.

Investigators believe flooding on the vessel started in the rudder room, and was likely because a rudder fell out of place. That started a chain of events, said NTSB managing director David Mayer, which caused the ship to go down.

"A lack of internal watertight integrity allowed the progressive flooding that eventually sank the Alaska Ranger," he said.

Mayer said internal controls did not prevent water from spreading. The 35-year-old ship lost electrical power, and because of a redesign, that caused pumps controlling the vessel's propellers to lose hydraulic pressure and the blades moved at an astern pitch - driving the vessel backward. Mayer said that made the situation worse.

"The astern movement of the Alaska Ranger before the sinking caused the vessel to move away from the life-rafts and prevented crewmembers from entering the life-rafts from the vessel as intended."

Less than half the 47 crewmen made it to life boats. Five died, including the captain, mate, chief engineer, and fish master. Because the officers died and the Ranger sunk to the Bering Sea floor, the NTSB had a hard time piecing together exactly what happened on March 23 of last year. Officials said what caused the rudder to fall out in the first place will never be known.

The daughter of Captain Eric Peter Jacobsen attended Wednesday's hearing, and said she hopes some good will come out of the tragedy. Karen Jacobsen said she has one theory as to why the rudder failed.

"Probably the previous run before my father took over, the ship maybe took some hits through some ice that maybe damaged the rudder, and that would be my guess, because nobody knows really what happened," she speculated.

The NTSB did find that employees were under the "mistaken impression" that the Alaska Ranger had been strengthened for operation in sea ice. It had not. Investigators also noted in their findings that the vessel's owner, the Fishing Company of Alaska, did not enforce its own strict no-tolerance drug and alcohol policy. It also found the company did not ensure its officers met engineering qualifications, but the NTSB said there is no evidence that contributed to the disaster.

The Safety Board is issuing five recommendations. Chairwoman Deborah Hersman said the biggest is that the Coast Guard needs to have the authority, granted by Congress, to inspect and certify all fishing vessels. Right now it runs a voluntary program.

"There is a lot more regulations for the fish than there are for the fishermen's safety. That needs to get rectified. The fish are more protected than the fishermen," she said.

Hersman said Congress will need to step in, and she noted that the NTSB has made that same recommendation three other times to no avail. She hopes this time will be different.

The Board also recommended the Coast Guard conduct refresher training for marine inspectors and commercial fishing vessel examiners and it said the Fishing Company of Alaska should review and fix its drug and alcohol enforcement policies.

It also recommended changing federal code and the fishery management plan for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area. Currently what are considered Amendment 80 vessels can't be replaced in the fishing fleet unless they're lost or destroyed. The NTSB said that should be changed so owners have an incentive to replace old ships rather than making decades of repairs.

The final NTSB report will be available for viewing in couple of weeks. You can read the abstract here.