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Jacksonville, Fla. • Federal accident investigators are considering launching another search for the wreckage of a freighter that sank in October to locate the ship's "black box."
Tom Roth-Roffy, the lead investigator for National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told The Associated Press that a weekslong search found one of the El Faro's missing decks but not the mast where the ship's voyage data recorder was attached. The agency on Sunday released the first images of the ship in its final resting place.
"There were no human remains found whatsoever, and no personal effects whatsoever," Roth-Roffy said. "I think we found one boot."
The El Faro sank Oct. 1 after losing engine power and getting caught in a Category 4 hurricane while sailing from Jacksonville to San Juan, Puerto Rico. There were 33 mariners aboard and no survivors.
Roth-Roffy said the NTSB would need to launch a second search of the wreckage 15,000 feet deep if it wants to find the data recorder, which would have recorded the captain's final transmissions. They are still determining if and when such a search could occur.
The images of the sunken ship show a breach in the El Faro's hull and its main navigation tower missing.
Roth-Roffy says crews did locate one of the missing decks about a half-mile away from the main ship. Images show it resting on the seafloor, its windows broken out.
The ship's stern was buried more deeply than the bow, Roth-Roffy said.
Investigators are still piecing events of the sinking together, but at this point they've ruled out a major structural failure as a cause, Roth-Roffy said.
Even without the data recorder, the images taken by remote-controlled underwater vehicles are helping to shed light on the case.
Roth-Roffy says all of the ship's cargo containers except for four were gone. The El Faro was carrying automobiles.
Determining what happened to the ship will be more difficult without the data recorder, but NTSB's investigators have said they are still confident they'll be able to find answers.
The data recorder charts the date, time and speed of a marine vessel, and also records conversations on the bridge that could include key decision-making between captain and crew.
While recovering a small piece of equipment at such depth is difficult, there is precedent.
The black box of the Air France jetliner that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009, on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris was found in about 12,800 feet of water.