The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced on Wednesday it will have to set up a new mission to retrieve the voyage data recorder (VDR) of sunken cargo ship El Faro.
This came a day after the NTSB announced that the VDR had been located still on its mast mount in the wreckage of the El Faro on the ocean floor off the Bahamas.
The NTSB says that a new mission for retrieval is necessary because the equipment on Atlantis is not adequate given how the VDR is positioned and because of obstructions around it. Specialized salvage equipment is needed.
It is too soon to give a date when the next mission will begin but NTSB said to expect it to be some months.
The VDR should contain valuable navigation data and audio recordings from the ship’s bridge, which could prove useful at a second round of US Coast Guard (USCG) hearings into the disaster. The first round of hearings was held in February.
