Feds Release Photos of Ship's Final Resting Place

Federal accident investigators are considering launching another search of the wreckage of a freighter that sank in October in an attempt to locate the ship's "black box." Tom Roth-Roffy, the lead investigator for National Transportation Safety Board, told the AP that a weeks-long 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 says. "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 says the NTSB would need to launch a second search of the wreckage 15,000 feet below the sea 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 would occur. Investigators are still piecing events of the sinking together, but at this point they've ruled out a major structure failure as a cause of the El Faro's sinking. (More El Faro stories.)