A troubling update in the ongoing efforts to figure out what happened leading to the sinking of the El Faro- the NTSB says the ship’s bridge and Voyage Data Recorder have not been located.
A special search crew and equipment from US Naval Sea Systems Command found the wreckage of the ship this weekend by using a special side-scan sonar.
VIDEO: Sonar searches for El Faro
A remotely operated vehicle was sent out to verify the ship was the El Faro and begin to survey the scene. The confirmation came Monday, and since then the ROV has documented the port and starboard sides of the vessel, according to the NTSB.
The El Faro is upright, with the stern buried under about 30 feet of sediment.
The NTSB says the navigation bridge and deck below have separated from the rest of the ship, and crews have not yet located that. The Voyage Data Recorder- which the NTSB hopes will have data and other information in to what happened in the ship’s final moments- has also not been found.
The container ship was heavily loaded while traveling from Jacksonville to Puerto Rico. It sank when it encountered Category 4 Hurricane Joaquin with 33 people on board.
GALLERY: El Faro crew
In the Captain's final communication, he reported that their hull had breached and they had lost propulsion.
We're told the sonar images which were already taken don't appear to show any sign of the bridge. The plan is to redeploy the side-scan sonar system to map the debris field. It's unclear at this time whether the VDR was damaged, but initial efforts to use a ping locator to find it were unsuccessful.
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