NTSB to revisit El Faro wreck in search of more evidence

The key objective of the two-week National Transportation Safety Board mission in April will be to locate the voyage data recorder or “black box” dislodged from the TOTE Maritime general cargo vessel when it sank Oct. 1 during Hurricane Joaquin.

   The National Transportation Safety Board announced Thursday it will launch a second expedition to search for evidence in its investigation of the loss of the TOTE Maritime cargo ship El Faro, which sank in the Atlantic during Hurricane Joaquin on Oct. 1, 2015, resulting in the death of 33 crew members.
   “A key objective of the upcoming mission, which is expected to begin in April and last about two weeks, is to locate the voyage data recorder (VDR) and to provide investigators with a more extensive and detailed survey of the shipwreck. The exact launch date will be announced later,” NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart said in a statement.
   “The voyage data recorder may hold vital information about the challenges encountered by the crew in trying to save the ship,” he added. “Getting that information could be very helpful to our investigation.”
   NTSB located the 790-foot ship was under about 15,000 feet of water near the Bahamas on Oct. 31, and the ship and debris field were documented with a video camera mounted on an underwater remotely operated vehicle.
   Video revealed that the navigation bridge structure and the deck below it had separated from the ship. The missing structure included the mast and its base where the VDR was mounted. Neither the mast nor the VDR was found in the vicinity of the navigation bridge structure during the initial search mission, which was completed on Nov. 15.
   NTSB said after investigators reviewed the data and video from the initial search, leadership determined that a return mission to El Faro was warranted.
   During the return mission, a search area of approximately 13.5 square miles will be photo- and video-documented by Sentry, an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that will be launched from the research vessel Atlantis, which is owned by the U.S. Navy and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). Sentry can work at depths of nearly 20,000 feet and can be equipped with a wide array of sonar, camera and other sensors.
   If the black box is located, another mission using a remotely operated vehicle capable of recovering the recorder will be initiated.
   Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., had previously urged the NTSB to make the return voyage to find the voyage data recorder, and commended the NTSB for its decision today in a speech on the floor of the Senate.
   “We owe to it not only to the families of the lost mariners aboard the El Faro, but to the future safety of all those who travel on the high seas,” said Nelson. “It’s up to us to not only understand what happened, but to do what we can to insure that it does not happen in the future.”
   Earlier this week, Nelson also called for an investigation into the encounter of the Royal Caribbean International cruise ship Anthem of the Seas with a massive storm with hurricane-force winds and huge waves off the Carolinas over the weekend. That ship returned to its port of departure in Bayonne, New Jersey Wednesday night, at which point passengers were able to disembark.
   “The thing about this storm was that it was forecast for days. So why in the world would a cruise ship with thousands of passengers go sailing right into it?” Nelson said Monday in another speech on the Senate floor.