Sunken Ship El Faro Remains Seen Publicly for the First Time
Federal accident investigators found the final resting place of the sunken El Faro cargo ship 15,000 feet below the sea. The said vessel had 33 mariners aboard back in October when it went missing. However, there were no human remains found and the cause of the sinking remains to be a mystery.
After the long search, the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) finally found the missing ship, which previously caught a Category 4 hurricane while sailing from Jacksonville to San Juan, Puerto Rico, the Associated Press reports.
The agency also released its first official video footage and photos of the sunken ship to the public on Sunday. "There were no human remains found whatsoever, and no personal effects whatsoever," said Tom Roth-Roffy, the lead investigator of the NTSB. "I think we found one boot."
The ship, according to The Weather Network, was found northeast of the Bahamas. While the images showed that the ship's main navigation tower remains to be missing, the investigators are still puzzled at the mysterious cause of the sinking.
Furthermore, the ship was found through a side-scan sonar, a 3,600-pound machine, which has the size of a large office desk, per the New York Times. It was lowered into the water by fiber optic cable to map the ocean floor and look for signs of wreckage.
The authorities are reportedly planning on their second attempt to search missing debris including human remains. The NTSB reveals that there are still no final investigation results and major structure failure as a cause has been ruled out.
According to the Associated Press, the NTSB is looking for the ship's data recorder, which can be found in the main mast, a 35-foot tall structure that remains to be missing. The data recorder will determine the date, time and speed of the marine vessel. It will also show recorded conversations on the bridge that may shed some light on the decision-making between the captain and crew.
The company of the said El Faro ship, before it sank on Sept. 30, had the captain email that he planned to take a route south of the hurricane Joaquin's predicted path, the New York Times reports.
By 7 a.m. on Oct. 1, the captain made a recorded satellite call, saying that the ship had lost propulsion and there was water in hold No. 3. Then a signal sent by the vessel at 7:17 a.m. showed that the ship's last reported position was about 20 miles from the edge of the eye of the hurricane, the publication revealed.
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