The National Transportation Safety Board announced in a press release Monday afternoon that after five days of searching for the El Faro’s voyage data recorder – known as the black box – it doesn’t plan any more search missions.
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On November 11, the navigation bridge was found but neither the mast nor the VDR was found in the vicinity, the NTSB said.
The NTSB still has a lot of investigative avenues to help determine what happened, even without the data recorder, said Marjorie Cooke, a marine safety expert with Robson Forensic and former director of the NTSB’s office of marine safety.
No further search missions for El Faro are planned, the NTSB added.
The ship had gone missing a month earlier during a voyage from Jacksonville, Fla.to San Juan, Puerto Rico carrying a load of cars and other cargo.
The board said recently it had located the ship and its bridge, which had separated, in 15,000 feet of water. The ship is mostly intact and oriented in an upright position, with its stern buried in approximately 30 feet of sediment, the NTSB has said. The missing structure included the mast and its base where the voyage data recorder was mounted.
The investigation into El Faro’s sinking will not contain evidence from the ship’s voyage data recorder.
Using sonar and a remotely operated submersible, CURV-21, the wreckage of the ship was initially detected sitting on the ocean floor at a depth of almost three miles (5 km), deeper than the Titanic and beyond the reach of divers.
“TOTE would like to express its appreciation for the extraordinary work of the crew and support staff of the US Navy vessel Apache for its efforts locating the El Faro”.
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The 790-foot (241-meter) ship disappeared with its 33 crew in the eye of hurricane Joaquin after the captain reported losing propulsion and taking on water.
