Story highlights Wreckage found 3 miles deep in ocean ID'd as El Faro cargo ship, Navy says 
 
 Remote submarine with camera will spend at least 15 days searching beneath water 
 
 El Faro disappeared last month near the Bahamas with 33 people on board 
 
 (CNN) The U.S. Navy, using a remotely controlled submersible operating almost 3 miles below the ocean's surface, has identified the cargo ship El Faro, Navy spokesman Christopher Johnson said Monday. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board confirmed the identification. 
 
 Search crews using sonar over the weekend found wreckage that appeared to resemble a 790-foot cargo ship in an upright position, the NTSB said. The Navy used a special sub, the CURV 21, to positively identify the wreckage as that of El Faro, Johnson said. 
 
 Now, families have the answer they've been seeking for more than a month. 
 
 Photos: The search for El Faro Photos: The search for El Faro From left, Petty Officer 1st Class Jim Fielder, the plane's engineer, Lt. Heather Majeska, a copilot, and Petty Officer 3rd Class Anders Forsberg, who operated the plane's communications, search for debris. Despite the wealth of technology involved in the search for El Faro survivors, eyes are still one of the most important tools in the search, and everyone is expected to keep a look out. Hide Caption 1 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro The plane makes a sharp bank to "orbit," or fly back over, a piece of debris that the crew wants to check. On the second pass, the cockpit crew gives it another look, as will the crewmember operating the onboard camera. Here, Petty Officers 3rd Class Chris LaBelle, left, and Mark Strock sit on the edge of the cargo door in hopes of getting a better perspective on the debris. Hide Caption 2 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro LaBelle, the navigator, points out the plane's planned grid en route to the search area. The land mass to the left is San Salvador Island, Bahamas, and the grid requires that pilots fly in a 44-mile lane in one direction, make a U-turn almost two miles wide, and then fly back 44 miles parallel to the previous lane. The total flight was about 700 miles, roughly the distance from Minneapolis to Denver. Hide Caption 3 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro The HC-130 passes back over San Salvador Island, Bahamas, on its way back to the base in Clearwater, Florida. The starting point for the more than 1,000-square-mile search Monday was just northeast of San Salvador Island, in the Atlantic Ocean. The Coast Guard announced while this plane was airborne that the search for the actual container ship was over and the focus was now solely on survivors. Hide Caption 4 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro This image demonstrates the difficulty of spotting survivors or recoverable items, even from the frighteningly low altitude of 500 feet. Hide Caption 5 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro The plane passes over Eleuthera, another Bahamian island, located about 50 miles east of Nassau. The crew had been mildly concerned about weather before takeoff, but they called the conditions for Monday's search prime, explaining that with few clouds and no whitecaps on the smooth ocean surface, it was much easier to spot and identify debris. Hide Caption 6 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro The plane neared the search grid just after the sun rose. The crew timed its departure from Clearwater, just before 5 a.m. ET, to maximize the sunlight. But even with optimum conditions and a wealth of debris on the water, it was difficult to see each piece -- and more importantly, determine if anyone might be clinging to it -- so the plane often made multiple passes over anything the crew deemed possibly recoverable. Hide Caption 7 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro Majeska, one of the copilots, snacks on a cinnamon bun while flying the plane and keeping a close watch on the water below. The task of straining your eyes to see debris floating on the water up to a mile in the distance, doubling back and taking a closer look, for a period of about 10 hours is a grueling one, so everyone on board brought plenty of food -- pizza, breakfast burritos, salads, yogurt, bologna sandwiches, sushi -- to keep their energy up for the long mission. Hide Caption 8 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro When the HC-130 first took off, the cockpit was dark, the instruments on the control panel offering the only light. Here, the first rays of sun gleam into the cockpit as Lt. Janelle Setta, a copilot, left, and Fielder, the engineer, guide the plane to the search area. Hide Caption 9 of 10 Photos: The search for El Faro The Lockheed HC-130 that took the CNN crew up is a modified version of the C-130 Hercules transport plane. This model is suited specifically for search-and-rescue missions, whether they be in combat or otherwise. Though Monday's search kept the plane in the air for 10 hours, it landed with more than 15,000 pounds of fuel. A Coast Guard pilot told CNN that in the event of an emergency or change of plans, the plane could have remained in the air several more hours. Hide Caption 10 of 10 
 
 A crew on the USNS Apache had been working since Sunday to confirm the wreck's identity. The CURV 21, which is outfitted with a video camera, is also searching for the ship's data recorder. There was no immediate word on that. 
 
 Read More ||||| JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Federal investigators have positively identified the wreckage found 15,000 feet deep in the sea as that of the ill-fated cargo ship El Faro. 
 
 The National Transportation Safety Board said Monday on Twitter that the survey of the area will continue. 
 
 The ship sank in about 15,000 feet of water Oct. 1 during Hurricane Joaquin with 33 people aboard east of the Bahamas. No survivors were found. 
 
 The NTSB says sonar indicates the ship landed upright, which could help crews recover the ship's data record, or "black box." 
 
 The agency says the U.S. Navy is continuing to survey the area around the wreckage.
– On Saturday, the US Navy found what it believed to be the wreckage of the El Faro cargo ship that went missing in Hurricane Joaquin last month; on Monday, that news transitioned to proof positive, per a Navy spokesman, CNN reports. The affirmative identification was confirmed by the National Transportation Safety Board on Twitter, the AP adds. Crew on the USNS Apache had been working since Sunday to positively identify the cargo ship, using a special CURV-21 submarine equipped with recording equipment. Next on the sub's to-do list: find the El Faro's data recorder, CNN notes. (Meanwhile, the ship's owner says the wreck wasn't its fault.)