Salvage crews lifted the first wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 from the Potomac River on Monday, the start of an operation that was expected to take three days.
The salvage work will help investigators search for clues and give divers room to recover the last bodies of the 67 people who died in a crash between the jet and a U.S. Army helicopter over Washington.
The first piece of wreckage surfaced just after 10 a.m. Eastern, when a crane, perched on a barge in the middle of the river, hoisted what appeared to be one of the plane’s engines out of the water.
At noon, another piece of wreckage was removed. It appeared to be from the plane’s main body, including windows and the registration number. Fragments of the wreckage fluttered in the wind.
Remains of 55 victims have been recovered, officials said on Sunday afternoon. Recovery crews are continuing to search the cold and murky water for bodies. After being lifted from the river, the plane will be placed on a flatbed trailer and taken to a hangar to be studied as part of the investigation into the crash.
The collision on Wednesday night was the deadliest plane crash in the United States in two decades. It occurred in clear skies as the jet approached Ronald Reagan National Airport around 9 p.m.
Federal investigators said it was too early to speculate about the causes of the crash. Still, the disaster has raised concerns about staffing, congestion and safety at one of the nation’s busiest airports.
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