The search is on for El Faro’s data recorder
The Navy has about two weeks before the recorder’s ping goes silent.
A Navy search team is looking for a 55-pound orange data recorder about the size of a suitcase in the ocean — and they only have about two weeks to find it.
In order to solve the mystery as to why El Faro, a cargo ship with a competent captain, sank near the Bahamas last week and took all 33 crew members with it, the Navy is deploying a search team to comb the area for the ship’s data recorder before the battery runs out, according to The Portland Press Herald.
The tricky part here is that officials don’t know exactly where to start, and once the battery runs out, they’ll have to employ different technologies to locate it. They estimate that the mission will cost around $15,000 per day, and could take two months and total more than $1 million, according to the Herald.
The El Faro’s sinking was an incredibly rare incident, as ships that large have become increasingly safer in recent years. If the Navy does locate the wreckage, they will send a remotely operated robot to retrieve the recorder, according to the Herald.
Read the full Herald story here.
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