NTSB: Search Crews find El Faro's Missing Data Recorder

NTSB: Search Crews find El Faro’s Missing Data Recorder

This undated image made from a video and released Tuesday, April 26, 2016, by the National Transportation Safety Board shows the stern of the sunken ship El Faro. The NTSB announced that the data recorder was located northeast of Acklins and Crooked Islands, Bahamas. El Faro, a 790-foot freighter, sank last October after getting caught in Hurricane Joaquin. The data recorder is capable of recording conversations and sounds on the El Faro's bridge, which may help investigators better understand the final moments of the ship's final journey. (National Transportation Safety Board via AP)

(National Transportation Safety Board via AP)

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) – Federal investigators say they have found the missing data recorder for the sunken cargo ship El Faro.

The National Transportation Safety Board said it had recovered the voyage data recorder, which may help investigators better understand the final moments of the ship’s last journey during a hurricane.

Federal officials relied on equipment that was designed and built on Cape Cod to investigate the wreckage.

An autonomous underwater vehicle called SENTRY, which was developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, photographed and video documented about 13.5 square miles of ocean.

The 790-foot freighter sank last October after losing propulsion while traveling between Jacksonville and San Juan, Puerto Rico. The ship got caught in 155 mph winds and strong seas of Hurricane Joaquin.

All 33 crew members aboard the ship were killed including Massachusetts Maritime Academy graduates Keith Griffin, 33, and Jeffrey Mathias, 44.

The NTSB failed to find the data recorder in its first search of the wreckage, some 15,000 feet underwater near the Bahamas.

Key questions remain about routing decisions made by ship Capt. Michael Davidson that took the ship closer to the path of the storm.