The installation of voyage data recorders on all large passenger vessels is one of the key Transportation Safety Board recommendations made in its report on the sinking of BC Ferries' Queen of the North.
The lack of a data recorder, similar to those used on commercial airplanes, was one of the challenges the board had in establishing the causes behind the sinking of the passenger ferry, which resulted in two passenger deaths.
The board noted that it spent roughly $900,000 investigating the ferry's sinking. It sunk more than half of that money into diving to the ship to collect equipment for the investigation.
BC Ferries has thus far installed 17 voyage data recorders and will be equipping the rest of its vessels with recorders by year's end.
The board has also recommended that all passengers be accounted for and evacuated in an emergency.