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Jet’s engine pulled from Hudson River

The left engine of US Airways Flight 1549 – which crash-landed into the water on Jan. 15 – can be seen as it is retrieved from the icy Hudson River in New York on Friday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
By ADAM PEMBLE Associated Press
The left engine of US Airways Flight 1549 – which crash-landed into the water on Jan. 15 – can be seen as it is retrieved from the icy Hudson River in New York on Friday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

NEW YORK – The battered, twisted left engine of the US Airways plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River was recovered Friday, after an eight-day struggle to find the wreckage and pull it from the murky water.

Using a large, floating crane, salvage crews gently set the engine on a barge. Shards of metal and wiring hung from the engine, and a large portion of the outer shell appeared to be missing as it was lifted from the river bottom, 65 feet below the surface.

Immediately after the engine was set down, National Transportation Safety Board investigators began documenting and photographing it as part of their probe into the plane’s remarkable landing.

New York Police Department and New Jersey State Police harbor officers working with a federal sonar expert on Tuesday located an object 16 feet long and 8 feet wide on the river floor, near where Flight 1549 made its emergency landing Jan. 15. Divers confirmed Wednesday that the object was the Airbus A320’s engine.

The Charlotte, N.C.-bound plane splashed down in the river after hitting a flock of birds. All 155 people on board survived.