The recovery came after U.S. Air Force 31st Rescue Squadron divers descended around 5:12 p.m. Monday on the capsized 145-foot dry cargo vessel. The divers also evaluated the ship’s exterior and deployed an underwater remotely operated drone to search its interior.
The following afternoon, at 2:17 p.m. Tuesday, crews from the Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel Akitsushima arrived alongside the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Frederick Hatch and deployed their own divers to further examine the wreck. No additional crew members were found.
"Our hearts are with the families of the Mariana crew members and the communities impacted by this tragic incident," said Cmdr. Preston Hieb, search and rescue mission coordinator for Coast Guard Oceania District. "We continue to search in close coordination with our partners, using all available resources to support the ongoing response."
Coast Guard aircrews are still searching for the five missing crewmen and an orange 12-person life raft in the waters near the CNMI.
The Mariana's troubles began April 15, when the vessel's manager notified the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu that the ship had lost its starboard engine with six people aboard, leaving it adrift roughly 125 miles north-northwest of Saipan.
The timing proved fatal as the vessel was struggling in the wake of Super Typhoon Sinlaku, which had battered Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands with catastrophic force.
Coast Guard watchstanders established hourly radio check-ins with the crew through the vessel manager, but contact was lost by Wednesday evening and was never reestablished. A Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane launched Thursday to search the area but was forced to return to Guam due to heavy winds.
The search expanded on April 18, when a Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point HC-130 crew spotted an overturned vessel about 34 nautical miles northeast of Pagan—about 100 nautical miles northeast of the Mariana's last known position. By April 20, a partially submerged life raft was spotted roughly 95 nautical miles northeast of the overturned vessel, and search crews had already covered more than 75,000 square nautical miles.
The search involves an extensive coalition of military and coast guard assets. Participating agencies include the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu, the Guam-based USCGC Frederick Hatch, Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii, the U.S. Air Force 31st Rescue Squadron out of Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, a U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon crew from Patrol Squadron 26, a Japan Coast Guard Gulfstream V jet, the Japan Coast Guard patrol vessel Akitsushima out of Yokohama, and a Royal New Zealand Air Force P-8A Poseidon crew from RNZAF Base Ohakea in New Zealand.
Anyone with information that could aid in the search is asked to contact the Coast Guard on VHF-FM Channel 16 or call the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu at 1-800-331-6176.
The Coast Guard opened the Port of Saipan to daylight-only commercial operations Wednesday afternoon—the first commercial vessel access to the island since Sinlaku made landfall.
"Getting vessels into Saipan means supplies can move, and that matters enormously to the people in the CNMI," said Capt. Jessica Worst, commander of U.S. Coast Guard Forces Micronesia/Sector Guam. "Restoring waterway access is vital, and it is one of the reasons I'm honored to serve in this region."
Tinian received its first commercial ship since the storm Tuesday, when the tank ship Sophia entered port for a fuel transfer. Rota opened to ship traffic Monday evening. All three CNMI commercial port waterways are now accessible, though mariners are warned that not all navigational aids are functioning as charted and that communications across the region are still severely degraded.