Jacksonville, FL — The Boeing 737 that slid off a runway at NAS Jax last Friday and in to the St. Johns River is now above the water.
NAS Jax says operations to remove the plane started Tuesday morning, after the fuel in the plane was removed completely Monday night. A barge was in place by mid-morning, and Navy contract partners were on scene preparing the aircraft.
The plane is now out of the water and on a barge.
Mobro Marine’s equipment is carrying out the salvage and transport. Chief Financial Officer Steve Cumella says they have a lot of experience in operations like this.
“I can’t say that we’ve lifted a 737 before, but certainly, objects that are much heavier and larger than that,” he says.
We’re told the plane will now be transported south. Cumella says the plan is to keep the plane intact, and it can fit that way under the Buckman Bridge. The final destination has not been disclosed, but that’s where NTSB investigators will begin a months-long probe.
“It will be in the area in a secure covered location where investigators can look more closely at the numerous systems and operating facilities”, said NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss.
Since bringing up the plane, the NTSB has already been able to recover the cockpit voice recorder, which is expected to have recorded conversations among the flight crew during that landing.
All 143 passengers and air crew on board Friday's flight were safely rescued with minor injuries, but a dog and two cats in the cargo area died. The Miami Air International charter plane was transporting both military and civilian personnel from Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Naval Air Station Jacksonville Friday night, when the incident happened.
The NTSB is currently investigating what went wrong with the landing. The preliminary investigation so far has shown that the pilots had been planning to land on a different runway, but asked air traffic control to let them change the approach. The NTSB says the pilots were warned the runway they wanted to switch to was effectively shortened because of barriers that were temporarily set up, but the pilots proceeded with their decision. It's unclear at this time why the pilots chose to change the landing approach, but the NTSB is hoping they will get more answers to that from the cockpit voice recorder. That device was underwater for several days, but has since been recovered.
GALLERY: Plane slides in to the St. Johns River after overrunning NAS Jax runway
The NTSB will also be investigating the maintenance history of the plane. Investigators say maintenance records show the left-hand thrust reverser- which is intended to help slow the plane- was “inoperative”, but there are procedures to work around that. They will also be examining the work/rest history of the pilots, their training, recent experience, and related areas.