Search for El Faro’s “black box” resumes today

A research ship will search waters off the coast of the Bahamas for a second time in an attempt to locate the voyage data recorder from the vessel, which may have clues on how it sank.    The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it will resume Monday, April 18, its search for the vessel data recorder (VDR) from the El Faro, the TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico cargo ship that sank off the Bahamas in Hurricane Joaquin on Oct. 1, 2015.
   All 33 crew members on the ship died, making it the worst accident involving a U.S.-flag ship in decades.
   Vessel data recorders are similar to the “black boxes” on aircraft, and NTSB investigators are hopeful that the recorder can help them determine exactly why and how El Faro sank.
   Last November, the NTSB worked with the U.S. Navy aboard the USNS Apache to successfully find the El Faro and conduct surveys of the debris field. The first search revealed that the upper two decks, including the navigation bridge, had separated from the El Faro’s hull and were about a half mile away on the ocean floor. The main mast of the ship and the attached VDR were not found during the first search.
   The second search is being conducted in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The research vessel Atlantis is scheduled to depart Charleston, S.C. April 18. The vessel is scheduled to search the accident site for 10 days before returning to Woods Hole, Mass. around May 5.
   The Atlantis will carry a sophisticated autonomous underwater vehicle, AUV Sentry, to search for the voyage data recorder. The VDR should contain critical information for NTSB and U.S. Coast Guard investigators. Besides basic navigational data, the recorder memory is expected to contain voice data from the El Faro’s navigation bridge in the hours before the ship sank in more than 15,000 feet of water.
   In addition to the information contained in the VDR, investigators will obtain digital high-resolution imagery of the hull and wreckage of the El Faro.