The National Transportation Safety Board has announced its intent to open the docket for its investigation into the sinking of the U.S. flagged cargo ship El Faro, on December 13.
The El Faro sank during Hurricane Joaquin in October 2015, and all 33 crewmembers aboard perished in the accident. The ship’s voyage data recorder was recovered from the ocean floor at a depth of about 15,000 feet, Aug. 8, 2016. A voyage data recorder group was convened Aug. 15, to audition the ship’s VDR and to develop a detailed transcript of the sounds and discernible words captured on the El Faro’s bridge audio.
About 26 hours of information was recovered from the VDR, including bridge audio, navigational data, onboard radar images and wind data. Investigators examined the VDR, found it to be in good condition, and downloaded its memory module data in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommended procedures.
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 docket will contain only factual information collected by NTSB investigators regarding the weather, engineering, survival factors, and data from the El Faro’s voyage data recorder. The docket will also contain the detailed transcript from the voyage data recorder’s audio recording.
The NTSB further says that the public docket does not provide analysis, findings, recommendations or probable cause determinations, and as such, no conclusions about how or why an accident occurred should be drawn from the docket. Providing the docket affords the public the opportunity to see what information has been gathered about the accident. Any analysis, findings, recommendations, or probable cause determinations related to the accident will be issued by the NTSB at a later date.
Source: NTSB