El Faro voyage knowledge recorder in recent water on the USNS Apache
AUGUST 9 — The voyage knowledge recorder (VDR) from El Faro, the TOTE cargo ship that sank throughout Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, was efficiently recovered from the ocean ground late Monday night.
The National Transportation Safety Board says the restoration of the VDR capsule caps a 10-month-long effort to retrieve the unit, which is designed to file navigational knowledge and communications between crew members on the ship’s bridge.
Investigators hope the recorder will reveal details about the ultimate hours of El Faro’s voyage and the circumstances main as much as the sinking of the U.S.-flag cargo ship.
“The recovery of the recorder has the potential to give our investigators greater insight into the incredible challenges that the El Faro crew faced,” stated NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart, “but it’s just one component of a very complex investigation. There is still a great deal of work to be done in order to understand how the many factors converged that led to the sinking and the tragic loss of 33 lives. I want to thank the dedicated professionals in the many organizations — especially the U.S. Navy, the Coast Guard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the National Science Foundation and the University of Rhode Island — who worked with NTSB investigators and support staff over three missions in 10 months to make this successful recovery possible.”
The Military Sealift Command tug USNS Apache departed Virginia Beach, Virginia, Friday with personnel from the NTSB, the U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy and Phoenix International aboard. After arriving on the accident location on Monday morning, technicians maneuvered CURV-21, a deep ocean remotely operated underwater automobile, down about 15,000 ft to the ocean ground the place the wreckage of El Faro rests.
Specialized instruments have been used to extricate the VDR capsule from the mast construction to which it was hooked up. The capsule was recovered to the deck of the ocean tug at about 10:30 pm Monday night.
The voyage knowledge recorder can be examined whereas at sea by NTSB investigators aboard the USNS Apache, to evaluate its situation and to make sure correct preservation for readout and additional examination ashore.
The VDR can be transported to the NTSB’s laboratory in Washingtom, DC after the Apache returns from sea on about Aug. 12, 2016.
Once on the NTSB’s lab a crew of specialists will audition the recording. It isn’t but recognized how lengthy it could take to evaluate the information and audio info which may be captured on El Faro’s VDR. While the minimal design requirement for VDRs of this kind is for 12 hours of recording, it could comprise extra info — reviewing which is a radical and time consuming enterprise.
NTSB says it would present updates as investigators study extra in regards to the situation and contents of the El Faro’s VDR.
While investigators study the VDR, extra photo- and video-documentation of the El Faro wreckage and particles area can be accomplished at present concluding NTSB’s actions on the website. No additional missions to the accident website are deliberate until warranted because the investigation continues.
