El Faro Update

Wow, set back after set back. There search keeps getting harder and harder. Hopefully they find it. It must've encountered some very violent forces to rip the bridge off of the ship and then also rip the data recorder that was attached to the bridge.

Copied from G Captain.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it has completed its documentation of the wreck of the cargo ship El Faro and the associated debris field, but the vessel’s voyage data recorder (VDR) has not been located.

No further search missions for the VDR are planned, the NTSB said.

“Over the years we’ve completed many investigations without the aid of recorders and other investigative tools,” said NTSB Chairman Christopher A. Hart. “While it is disappointing that the voyage data recorder was not located, we are hopeful that we’ll be able to determine the probable cause of this tragedy and the factors that may have contributed to it.”\

There is more but this is the gist of it.

Indeed. The pressure at 15,000 feet is 6,502.72 psi.

"Hopefully this won't lead to controversy."

Let's everybody try to stick to FACTS (sparce though they may be), not speculation, and let the final reports by the CG, Navy and NTSB draw the conclusions.

That seems to be a direct contradiction to:

Investigators must now search the sea floor for the recorder, the ship’s equivalent of a black box, a considerably smaller target. Searchers will comb a 1.5-mile radius around the wreckage for the recorder, which is roughly the size of a piece of carry-on luggage. Finding the recorder would offer clues to the cause of the sinking, including its speed and trajectory, as well as audio recordings from the bridge.

“This makes our job harder, but we’re going to try” to find it, said Eric Weiss, an NTSB spokesman.

What data is in a ships black box? I can image GPS data, but will it record bilge alarms? Messing hatches, voices?

From what I understand there's heading, speed, various mechanical readings, and probably most illuminating, voice recordings from the bridge.

Here ya go: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_data_recorder

Very interesting. Do we have any idea whether the El Faro carried a VDR or an S-VDR?

Given her age I think she would have been able to have the Lite Version S-VDR fitted at some stage as a retrofit. The full one seems to be aimed at new passenger and cargo ships built ( keel laid) after 01 July 2002

I'm assuming that unlike the aviation version the ship's recorders don't "ping" ?

Looks like the NTSB is going to try again.

http://********.com/ntsb-to-launch-...mpaign=Roost&utm_source=Roost&utm_medium=push

unfortunately the website to your links is blocked out so cannot access them.

Feb 16 (Reuters) – The captain of the U.S. cargo ship that sank off the Bahamas in a hurricane last fall, killing all 33 people on board, was responsible for decisions that put the vessel in the path of the storm, the company that operated the vessel said on Tuesday.

But members of a U.S. Coast Guard panel examining the sinking questioned that assessment and why the company had produced only a handful of email exchanges with the captain during the ill-fated voyage.

The 790-foot (241-meter) El Faro went down off the Bahamas on Oct. 1 while on a cargo run between Florida and Puerto Rico. It was the worst cargo shipping disaster involving a U.S.-flagged vessel in more than three decades.

Captain Michael Davidson, a veteran mariner from Maine, reported losing propulsion and taking on water before it sank.

Philip Morrell, an executive with ship operator Tote Services said the captain had “total responsibility,” including final determinations about safety, when to sail and the route.

The Coast Guard’s Marine Board of Investigation is looking for evidence of misconduct, inattention to duty, negligence or willful violation of the law by licensed or certified individuals.

Panelists noted a company email sent to Davidson, which said he was authorized to change his route to avoid the storm. But Morrell responded that the captain did not need company permission to change course.

The board’s marine casualty expert Keith Fawcett questioned why the company produced relatively few emails exchanged between the captain and company during the voyage, compared to thousands exchanged during previous hurricanes. Morrell said he did not know.

The investigation board last met to investigate the 2010 Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion that killed 11 workers and triggered the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Tuesday marked the start of 10 days of hearings on El Faro. The Coast Guard said it found the crew had proper credentials and the ship carried required safety and communications equipment.

Relatives of the dead El Faro crew members have sued Tote, saying the ship was not seaworthy and should have avoided the hurricane.

Tote has blamed the accident on a loss of power due to unknown causes and has invoked a 19th-century maritime law that would limit its financial liability.

The National Transportation Safety Board will try again in April to recover the ship’s voyage data recorder from the wreckage at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. (Reporting by Barbara Liston in Orlando, Fla.; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Tom Brown)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.

El Faro’s Final Voyage
http://i0.wp.com/********.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/El-Faro-Route-Final-Voyage.jpeg?zoom=1.5&resize=750%2C579
Credit: U.S. Coast Guard
Hurricane Joaquin
http://i1.wp.com/********.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Hurricane-Joaquin.jpg?zoom=1.5&resize=655%2C477
Credit: U.S. Coast Guard
El Faro Route During TS Erika
http://i1.wp.com/********.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/El-Faro-Route-TS-Erika-Route-vs-Final-Voyage.jpeg?zoom=1.5&resize=750%2C579
Credit: U.S. Coast Guard
Tropical Storm Erika
http://i2.wp.com/********.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/TS-Erika-Track.jpg?zoom=1.5&resize=207%2C125
Credit: U.S. Coast Guard

http://********.com/coast-guard-wraps-first-day-of-testimony-in-el-faro-hearing/

El Faro’s Final Communications Played at Hearing – LISTEN
February 21, 2016 by Reuters

ReutersFeb 20 (Reuters) – The captain of the doomed El Faro warned that the “clock was ticking” as his cargo ship took on water in an Atlantic hurricane that would eventually sink the vessel, a U.S. Coast Guard panel heard on Saturday.

Captain Michael Davidson pleaded for help as his ship, operated by Tote Services, sailed into the path of Hurricane Joaquin near the Bahamas, according to a recording of his final calls played at the hearing.

He told an on-shore call center of a “maritime emergency,” saying water breached the hull, entering three holds.

Soon afterwards, contact with the ship was broken, and Davidson and 32 others were lost at sea. The sinking ranks as the worst disaster involving a U.S.-flagged cargo ship in more than three decades.

Recordings of the calls, made last October, were posted on the website of WOKV, a Jacksonville radio station.

AUDIO: El Faro Captain Davidson’s call with TOTE Services’ Designated Person Ashore

AUDIO: El Faro Captain Davidson’s call with TOTE Services’ Emergency Call Center

AUDIO: Coast Guard Sector Miami’s call with TOTE Services’ Designated Person Ashore

The U.S. Coast Guard began hearings this week to investigate the sinking. Executives of Tote Services have testified that ship captains have full responsibility for deciding when it is safe to sail and on setting the route.

Tote officials said it was Davidson’s call to depart Jacksonville with a storm brewing in the Atlantic, and said they were not closely monitoring the El Faro’s cargo run to Puerto Rico as a tropical storm strengthened into Joaquin.

On the phone call to shore, Davidson sounds frustrated with an operator who asked him to spell the name of the boat, telling her “the clock is ticking.”

In a voicemail to Tote’s “designated person ashore” John Lawrence, Davidson said that he had had a “navigational incident” and a “pretty good list,” referring the water in the holds, and that while the crew was safe he needed to talk to Lawrence.

Lawrence said that he had called Davidson back quickly, and the veteran Maine mariner sounded calm, according to WOKV. Lawrence then called the Coast Guard.

Family members of dead crew members have sued Tote in federal court.

After the 790-foot (241-meter) vessel was lost, the company bought a subscription for a bad-weather routing system for its ships, Tote President Philip Greene, testified this week.

The Coast Guard’s hearings continue through next Thursday.

The investigation could result in civil charges. If evidence of criminal activity is found, the Coast Guard will turn it over to the Justice Department. (Editing by Frank McGurty and W Simon)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2016.

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