Salvage crews started lifting the wreckage of American Airways Flight 5342 from the Potomac River in Washington on Monday morning, the beginning of an operation that was anticipated to take three days.
Simply after 10 a.m. Japanese, the primary piece of wreckage appeared. A crane perched on a barge in the course of the river hoisted what gave the impression to be one of many airplane’s engines out of the water.
Boats and crew members had began gathering on the river round 8 a.m. Col. Francis Pera of the Military Corps of Engineers mentioned on Sunday that the salvage work would reveal the our bodies of a few of those that have been nonetheless lacking after the lethal collision between the jet and an Military helicopter final week.
There have been 64 individuals aboard the jet and three within the helicopter, none of whom survived. Stays of 55 victims have been recovered, officers mentioned on Sunday afternoon. Restoration crews are persevering with to go looking the chilly and murky water for our bodies.
After being lifted from the river, the airplane will likely be positioned on a flatbed trailer and brought to a hangar to be studied as a part of the investigation into the crash.
The collision on Wednesday evening, the worst airplane crash in the USA in 20 years, occurred in clear skies because the jet approached Ronald Reagan Nationwide Airport round 9 p.m.
Federal investigators have mentioned it’s too early to take a position concerning the causes of the crash. But it surely has raised considerations about staffing, congestion and security at one of many nation’s busiest airports.
