When the American cargo ship El Faro sank in the Bahamas more than a year ago, military and civilian teams were called in to help find the wreck.
Dwight Coleman and his team from the URI graduate school of Oceanography provided communication equipment that connected investigators onshore with unmanned vessels some 15,000 feet below the surface.
Coleman said that normally this equipment was not used for scientific exploration. “But they often don’t use the technology for broadcasting ashore and involving shore-based teams,” he said. “So we think this will really help in the future for making the investigations more efficient and getting more people involved that couldn’t otherwise.”
Recordings from the black box provide some information for why the captain chose not to take a safer route during the storm. All 33 crew members perished.
