The U.S. Navy plans to remove heavy water-borne equipment brought in to recover the wreckage of a fighter jet that crashed into San Diego Bay two weeks ago, officials said Friday.
Having recovered more than 15 tons of wreckage from a 13,000-square-foot underwater debris field in the Shelter Island basin, crews will take away the barge and crane on Sunday, re-opening the area to civilian boaters.
An estimated 9,000 pounds of remnants of the aircraft remained in the bay as of Friday, 17 days after the unoccupied EA-18G Growler hurtled into the harbor and broke apart, according to U.S. Navy Third Fleet command.
Scaled-down salvage operations were expected to continue over the next two weeks, the Navy reported.
The crew safely ejected during the apparent mechanical emergency that preceded the plane going down near Shelter Island in rain and mist at about 10:15 a.m. Feb. 12. The crash followed a landing approach to Naval Air Station North Island in Coronado.
Witnesses described seeing the fighter jet flying at what seemed to be unusually low altitudes just before it took a steep nosedive.
After the two aviators who had bailed out of the aircraft were pulled from the water by the crew of a fishing boat, paramedics took them to UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest, where they were admitted in good condition.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation, according to the Navy.
