Crews recover 26 hours of information from El Faro's voyage data recorder

A group is working to transcribe approximately 26 hours of information that was recovered from El Faro's data voyage recorder.

The NTSB recovered El Faro's data voyage recorder from the ocean floor on Aug. 8 and information was recovered from it on Aug. 15.

The data includes audio from the bridge, weather and navigational data, officials said.

The quality of the recording is degraded because of background noise but crews were able to use filters to determine some of the conversations.

The master and crew discussed actions regarding flooding and the vessel’s list on the morning of Oct. 1, NTSB said.

The vessel’s loss of propulsion was mentioned on bridge audio at about 6:13 a.m., according to NTSB.

The master can be heard notifying shore side personnel of the vessel’s critical situation and preparing to abandon ship if necessary on the telephone.

The master ordered crew members to abandon ship and sounded the alarm about 7:30 a.m., Oct. 1.

The recording ended about 10 minutes later when El Faro was about 39 nautical miles northeast of Crooked Island, Bahamas, NTSB said.

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

Technical experts are still reviewing crew discussions regarding the weather situation and operation and condition of the ship, NTSB said.

Families were told about the recovery of information on Wednesday.

NTSB officials said it's still unknown how long it will take to develop a final transcript of the information.

Related: Family of El Faro crew won't hear recordings on VDR, officials say

Cox Media Group