Renewed hope for El Faro victims' families after voyage data recorder found

The families of the 33 men and women who died on board El Faro have renewed hope for answers.

After nearly seven months, the ship's voyage data recorder has been located on the ocean floor. Now crews have to figure out a way to retrieve it.

That device could hold the answers families have spent months waiting for. All of the families who spoke Action News Jax said they are thrilled it is found.

The VDR is designed to record conversations on the bridge and other vital information happening on the ship. The families tell us the VDR, which sits 15,000 feet underwater, has information that can provide closure.

“This should give us a wealth of information if the recordings are intact,” said maritime expert and attorney Rod Sullivan.

The voyage data recorder is still attached to El Faro's mast after the ship sank during Hurricane Joaquin.

A crew aboard the research vessel Atlantis discovered it near the ship’s wreckage off the Crooked Islands in the Bahamas Tuesday. The VDR is comparable to the black box on an airplane.

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“We believe this black box holds some answers,” said pastor Robert Green, who lost his son LaShawn on El Faro. “I knew this day had come, we'd been praying about it.”

The VDR is the size of a basketball and should contain crucial information about El Faro's final hours and those of her 33 lost crew members.

“I want to know if they abandoned ship,” Green said.

Green said he thanks U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., for pushing for a second recovery mission for the voyage data recorder.

“They found it. Thank goodness the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) went back the second time to find the missing data recorder,” Nelson said.

“It’s amazing they recovered it,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan is representing crewman Sylvester Crawford Jr.’s family.

“We have the evidence that the ship had problems, sailed into the face of a storm,” Sullivan said.

“We hope and pray it will give answers some answers, some sense of understanding,” Green said.

The NTSB said it is still working on a plan to retrieve the VDR from the bottom of the ocean.

Cox Media Group