National Transporation Safety Board...

VDR successfully recovered from the ocean floor Aug. 8

Wed, 08/24/2016 - 4:15pm

WASHINGTON — The National Transportation Safety Board announced Wednesday that it convened a voyage data recorder group Aug. 23 to develop a detailed transcript of the sounds and discernible words captured on the sunken El Faro's bridge audio, following the preliminary review of the ship's VDR.

The VDR from El Faro, a U.S.-flagged cargo ship that sank during Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, was successfully recovered from the ocean floor on Aug. 8. The VDR was transported to the NTSB's laboratory in Washington, D.C., on Aug. 12 and a variety of detailed information was successfully recovered Aug. 15.

Investigators examined the VDR, found it to be in good condition, and downloaded the memory module data. About 26 hours of information was recovered from the VDR, including bridge audio, weather data and navigational data.

In a press release, the NTSB said that numerous events leading up to the loss of the El Faro are heard on the VDR's audio, recorded from microphones on the ship's bridge.

“The quality of the recording is degraded because of high levels of background noise. There are times during the recording when the content of crew discussion is difficult to determine, at other times the content can be determined using audio filtering,” said NTSB in the release.

The recording began about 5:37 a.m. on Sept. 30, 2015, about eight hours after El Faro departed Jacksonville, Fla., with the ship about 150 nautical miles southeast of the city. El Faro was en route to make a delivery of goods to San Juan, Puerto Rico. It was carrying nearly 400 deck containers and 294 trailers below, with the cargo consisting of grocery items, cars and retail products. At the time of their departure, the vessels' officers and crew were monitoring what was then-Tropical Storm Joaquin.

The bridge audio from the morning of Oct. 1, captured the master and crew discussing their actions regarding flooding and the vessel's list. The vessel's loss of propulsion was mentioned on the bridge audio about 6:13 a.m. Also captured was the master speaking on the telephone, notifying shoreside personnel of the vessel's critical situation, and preparing to abandon ship if necessary. The master ordered abandon ship and sounded the alarm about 7:30 a.m. The recording ended about 10 minutes later, when the El Faro was about 39 nautical miles northeast of Crooked Island, Bahamas.

These times are preliminary and subject to change and final validation by the voyage data recorder group.

The VDR group's technical experts will continue reviewing the entire recording, including crew discussions regarding the weather situation and the operation and condition of the ship.

The NTSB said that families of El Faro's crew were briefed about the results of the preliminary review Wednesday, prior to the NTSB's public release of preliminary review information. The ship was sailing with a crew of 33, which are believed to have all perished. They included five Maine Maritime Academy gradates, two from Rockland, one from Windham, one from North Wilton and one from Brooklyn, N.Y. The remaining crew were resident of Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Virgina, as well as five from Poland.

“It remains unknown how long it will take to develop the final transcript of El Faro's VDR. The length of the recording and high levels of background noise will make transcript development a time consuming process,” said the release.

The NTSB also said that an update will be provided when warranted.