Wreckage believed to be the cargo ship El Faro has been found at a depth of 15,000 feet (4,500 metres) in the Atlantic after it was lost in a hurricane Joaquin, US officials have announced.

The US coastguard concluded it sank near the Bahamas after debris and a body in an immersion suit were found in the days after it went missing following a distress call.

The 790ft ship, carrying cars and other products, had 28 crew members from the US and five from Poland when it went down on 1 October.

It had left the Florida port of Jacksonville on Tuesday on a regular supply run bound for San Juan, the capital of Puerto Rico.

A search team using sophisticated scanning sonar found the wreckage, said the US National Transportation Safety Board on Saturday.

The federal agency said searchers aboard the USNS Apache, a navy vessel, made contact near the ship’s last known position on the fifth of 13 surveying passes.

“To confirm the finding, specialists on Apache will use … a deep ocean remotely operated vehicle to survey and confirm the identity of the wreckage,” a statement said.

The NTSB’s Peter Knudson said the wreckage appeared to be upright and in one piece.

The Faro’s captain, Michael Davidson, had called in before the vessel disappeared saying it had lost its engine power and was listing and taking on water.

The ship had been scheduled for retirement from Caribbean duty and for new retrofitting for service between the west coast and Alaska, company officials have said. Both the Faro and its sister ship were slated to be replaced by two new ships. Aboard when it sank were five engineers from Poland, who were working on the retrofitting as the ship sailed to Puerto Rico.



NTSB investigators said Davidson had intended to pass 65 miles (104km) from the centre of the storm, a decision maritime experts said was risky.

Attempts will now be made to locate and recover the ship’s voyage data recorder, the NTSB has said.

With Associated Press