Sunken El Faro voice data recorder recovered, taken to NTSB laboratory
THE voyage data recorder from El Faro, a US flagged cargo ship that sank during Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, has been recovered from the ocean floor.
The recovery of the capsule caps a 10-month-long effort to retrieve the recorder, which was designed to record navigational data and communications between crew members on the ship's bridge.
"I want to thank the US Navy, the Coast Guard, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, the National Science Foundation and the University of Rhode Island, who worked with investigators over 10 months to make this successful recovery possible," said Christopher Hart, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Military Sealift Command's fleet ocean tug USNS Apache departed Virginia Beach, Virginia. After arriving at the accident location between Jacksonville and Puerto Rico, technicians manoeuvred CURV-21, a deep ocean remotely operated underwater vehicle, down 15,000 feet to the sea floor where the wreckage of El Faro rests.
