Local

NTSB confirms wreckage is that of El Faro

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — More than a month after their loved ones were last seen, family members of the 33 crew members on El Faro found out Monday that the wreckage found Saturday was that of El Faro.

The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed the wreckage of El Faro is 15,000 feet below the surface.

Maritime attorney Rod Sullivan said the challenge now is detaching the voyage data recorder from the ship, but the Navy has the tools to do that.

“For instance, tools like a cutting disk and a guillotine, which they can use to chop up some parts of the ship to try to remove the S-VDR,” said Sullivan.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the operation to locate and recover the voyage data recorder, or black box, could take up to 15 days, depending on weather conditions.

The Navy was able to locate the wreckage using Orion, an advanced side-scanning sonar system.

The device sends out sonar waves, which bounces off objects. Crews can then determine if it came from an underwater mountain or a piece of steel.

Images from the Orion, which haven’t been seen yet, appear to show that the target is in an upright position and in one piece.

Sullivan said that's good news for search crews.

“The fact that it is sitting upright is good, because that means there’s a possibility that the voyage data recorder has not been crushed, and that it’s sitting up on the bridge level and can potentially be recovered,” Sullivan said.

According to Sullivan, in the coming days, investigators will start focusing on specific areas that may reveal damage.

“If I were them, I'd want to look at the containers and the container latching. Did all the containers fall to one side or did they fall in disarray?” said Sullivan.

Action News Jax found at least two partial containers on the beach in the Bahamas last week. The cable securing them was visibly ripped off.

Sullivan also pointed out other areas investigators will likely check.

“If you find vertical cracks mid-ship, that indicates to me a different problem. That indicates maybe the ship broke up first because of metal fatigue or age,” said Sullivan.

Action News Jax has requested images obtained by the sonar equipment but the NTSB says it will not release the images at the moment.

If investigators are able to recover the VDR they can obtain information like bridge audio, radar data, other communications, and even the ship’s position when it went down.