]/>Eventually, a remotely operated vehicle confirmed the vessel was at the bottom of the sea near Crooked Island, Bahamas, 15,000 feet below the surface – even deeper than the Titanic -- its hull buried in about thirty feet of sediment.
But to investigators’ surprise, the navigation bridge, where many crew members likely attempted to weather the storm, had been shorn off, battered by the powerful storm.
They would later find the navigation bridge nearly half a mile away. But one thing was missing: the ship’s voyage data recorder, or VDR.
]/>
The VDR would have captured audio from the 12 hours before the ship’s sinking, providing insight into the vessel’s final moments.
Still, investigators say, they’re “hopeful that we’ll be able to determine the probable cause of this tragedy” – even without the so-called black box.
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