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Engineering a Deep-sea Search

January 8, 2017

After WHOI assisted the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the U.S. Coast Guard in locating the voyage data recorder (VDR) from the sunken cargo ship El Faro, NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart (right) paid a visit to WHOI in July to learn more about the institution’s deep-sea capabilities. During the visit, Andy Bowen (left), who served as the WHOI expedition leader during the El Faro search, provided a behind-the-scenes tour of the Deep Submergence Lab, where many of WHOI’s deep-sea vehicles are built and maintained. They include the autonomous vehicle Sentry and the remotely operated Alvin Observation Vehicle, both used in the search for El Faro’s VDR.(Photo by Richard Pittenger, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)