The National Transportation Safety Board will launch a mission to recover a voyage data recorder of the sunken El Faro vessel, that was located on April 26 in about 15,000 feet of water near the Bahamas.
The voyage data recorder is from the cargo ship El Faro, a U.S. flagged cargo ship that sank during Hurricane Joaquin on October 01, 2015. The El Faro wreckage was identified on November 01, 2015, during the NTSB’s initial mission to locate the wreckage.
Video gained from remotely operated underwater vehicles during the initial search revealed the El Faro’s navigation bridge structure and the deck below it had separated from the hull. The missing bridge structure included the mast and its base to which the voyage data recorder was mounted.
The NTSB announced on February 11, 2016, that it would launch a second search mission to locate the VDR and document the wreckage and debris field.
That effort succeeded in locating the VDR and completing video- and photo-documentation of the accident site.
After investigators collaborated in May with scientists and deep water recovery experts, to determine how the VDR could be recovered given its proximity to nearby obstacles, the NTSB contracted with the U.S. Navy Supervisor of Salvage to assist in the recovery effort.
The naval resources participating in the recovery effort include the USNS Apache and CURV-21, a remotely operated underwater vehicle. CURV-21 is the same equipment used to locate the El Faro wreckage in November, NTSB explained.
Investigators from the NTSB and the U.S. Coast Guard, and engineers from the U.S. Navy and Phoenix International, the operator of CURV-21, will be aboard USNS Apache when it departs in early July for the accident site near the Bahamas.
The trip to the accident site is expected to take three to four days, followed by five days on scene to recover the VDR.