The operation to recover the voyage data recorder from wreckage believed to be the cargo ship El Faro may take up to 15 days, depending on weather and sea conditions, federal officials have said, according to AP. Investigators still have to confirm that the wreckage found with sonar Saturday in 15,000 feet of water east of the Bahamas is the El Faro, which went missing Oct. 1 during Hurricane Joaquin. All 33 crewmembers on board were lost. If the vessel is confirmed as the El Faro, a remotely operated, deep ocean vehicle called CURV-21 will use a video camera to document the wreckage and debris field, as well as attempt to locate and recover the data recorder â€" the ship's "black box" that could yield clues as to what happened to the 790-foot ship. "Those operations are expected to take up to 15 days to complete in ideal conditions but could take longer depending on weather and conditions encountered during the documentation process," U.S. National Transportation Safety Board spokesman Peter Knudsen said in a statement late Saturday. The CURV-21 is designed to work up to a maximum depth of 20,000 feet of seawater, according to the Navy. The El Faro was reported missing east of the Bahamas, and it apparently came to rest at a depth greater than the final resting place of the Titanic, which lies over 12,500 feet down in the north Atlantic. The depth may complicate the search of the El Faro's wreckage. When the World War II-era German battleship Bismark was found in 1989 about 15,700 feet down, the impact of hitting the ocean floor drove the bottom deck up about one level into the vessel, and compressing water inside the ship blew out plating on its hull, Sean Kery, a hydrodynamicist who co-chairs a marine forensic committee for the Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineering, told The Florida Times-Union (http://bit.ly/1Ohn0Wy). Other experts told the newspaper that without the recorder or the wreckage, investigators would have to rely on observations from people connected to the ship, such as crew who were on vacation or quit recently or contractors who examined or worked on the ship's equipment, or on paperwork, such as Coast Guard inspection reports or surveys by the American Bureau of Shipping, which keeps data on ship design and safety. The El Faro's captain called in before the vessel disappeared saying the ship had lost its engine power during its voyage from Jacksonville, Florida, to San Juan, Puerto Rico. The captain, Michael Davidson, said the ship was listing, and taking on water. An extensive Coast Guard after El Faro disappeared found only floating debris and one body in a survival suit. The El Faro was scheduled for retirement from Caribbean duty and for new retrofitting for service between the West Coast and Alaska, company officials have said. Both the El Faro and its sister ship were slated to be replaced by two new ships. Aboard when it disappeared were five engineers from Poland, who were working on the retrofitting as the ship sailed to Puerto Rico. NTSB investigators have said Davidson intended to pass 65 miles from the center of the storm â€" a decision independent maritime experts have deemed risky.
