The US Coast Guard will hold its third round of hearings into the sinking of El Faro this winder, ensuring that the probe will last more than a year after the ship went down.

The agency said today that the final hearing session will examine information collected from the voyage data recorder (VDR).

The Marine Board of Investigation (MBI) hearing will likely mark the end of the fact-finding phase of the probe into loss of the 5,330-lane-metre conro El Faro (built 1975), whose sinking during Hurricane Joaquin cost 33 lives.

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