NTSB delays recovery mission for El Faro’s ‘black box’

The National Transportation Safety Board said its mission to recover the El Faro’s voyage data recorder will be delayed a month from early July to early August.    The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said its mission to recover the El Faro’s voyage data recorder (VDR) will be pushed back from the early July to the first week of August.
   Early August was the soonest that all of the resources for the mission would be available, which is why the NTSB said it delayed the mission.
   The effort will be launched from Little Creek, Va. and is expected to last about two weeks.
   The  El Faro, a U.S.-flag cargo ship, sank during Hurricane Joaquin Oct. 1, 2015 with the loss of all 33 crew members. The vessel’s wreckage was positively identified on Nov. 1, 2015 during the NTSB’s initial mission to locate the wreckage. On Nov. 11, the navigation bridge was discovered, but searchers were not able to locate the recorder. A second mission found the VDR, and the NTSB will now return to try and recover the recorder in a third trip to the wreck site near the Bahamas.
   The ship, USNS Apache, will travel to the site with CURV-21, a remotely operated underwater vehicle. CURV-21 is the same equipment used to locate the El Faro wreckage in November. The recorder is located in about 15,000 feet of water.