NTSB to Resume Search for El Faro's Voyage Data Recorder
The National Transportation Safety Board is set to resume its search Monday for the voyage data recorder of the sunken El Faro cargo ship.
The U.S. flagged El Faro sank after sailing into Hurricane Joaquin on October 1, 2015 with the loss of all 33 crew.
The goal of the new search is to retrieve the ship's voyage data recorder and better document the wreckage to help the NTSB in its investigation into why and how the ship sank.
SEE ALSO: Photos and Video of Sunken EL FARO
The search will be conducted in cooperation with the National Science Foundation and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution using the research vessel Atlantis. The vessel is scheduled to depart Charleston, South Carolina on Monday and search the accident site for 10 days before returning to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, around May 5.
The Atlantis will carry a autonomous underwater vehicle, AUV Sentry, to search for the voyage data recorder. The VDR should contain critical information for NTSB and U.S. Coast Guard investigators. In addition to basic navigational data, the recorder memory is expected to contain voice data from the El Faro’s navigation bridge in the hours before the ship sank in more than 15,000 feet of water. In addition to the information contained in the VDR, investigators will obtain digital high-resolution imagery of the hull and wreckage of the El Faro.
Last November the NTSB worked with the U.S. Navy aboard the USNS Apache to successfully find the El Faro and conduct surveys of the debris field. The first search revealed that the upper two decks, including the navigation bridge, had separated from the El Faro's hull and were about a half mile away on the ocean floor. The main mast of the El Faro and the attached VDR were not found during the first search.Posted On:18-Apr-2016
Credits: gcaptain.com |
MOL confident on long term prospects for LNG demand
Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) is confident about the prospects for LNG shipping in the medium to longer term.
Speaking at Sea Japan 2016, Takeshi Hashimoto, director and senior managing executive officer of MOL, noted that the prices of LNG had plunged over the last one and half years. "Before that thinking about how LNG was going to have explosive growth."
However, during in this period he noted that Norwegian and Greek owners were very bullish on ordering LNG carriers and this had led to an excess in supply of vessels and a volatile market.
Last year saw what he described as rather flat growth for LNG production to 245m tonnes.
Over the last few days there had been signs that the market had bottomed out. Despite the slump in the market Hashimoto said the, "The forecast for LNG consumption doesn't have to be changed so much in the long run."
Over the next few years supply is expected to expand significantly as projects in Australia and the US start to come on stream.
Hashimoto said that the concern should be that there will be an excess in supply.
With low prices for LNG this could spur new countries to start importing gas with the costs of setting up an import terminal reduced greatly due to new floating solutions such as FSRUs. Environmental concerns, including the COP21 agreement would also help drive LNG demand.
Source: Seatrade MaritimePosted On:18-Apr-2016
Credits: www.hellenicshippingnews.com |
