Cargo plane wreckage recovered from Hong Kong waters days after deadly airport crash

The main wreckage of a cargo plane that veered off a Hong Kong runway and plunged into the sea was recovered from the waters on Sunday, days after the deadly crash.

The Boeing 747, flown by Turkey-based ACT Airlines from Dubai, skidded after landing last Monday and collided with a patrol car, sending both vehicles into the sea. Two workers in the car were killed. The four crew members on the plane were unhurt.

Salvage crews lifted the front part of the fuselage, adjusting its position in the air at times before slowly placing it onto a vessel. Before the salvage operation, experts had conducted an underwater sonar survey, and the runway where the crashed occurred was temporarily closed.

The aircraft’s tail and other parts were lifted on Friday, as well as the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder. The devices were sent to a laboratory for preliminary examination, a government statement said.

Investigators were working to determine the cause of the crash. The aircraft was operated under lease by Emirates, a long-haul carrier based in Dubai.

Representatives from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board and Turkey’s Transport Safety Investigation Center, alongside experts from Boeing, are also part of the investigation. The city’s air accident investigation authority said it would release a preliminary report within one month.

Steven Yiu, the airport authority’s executive director for airport operations, earlier said that weather and runway conditions met standards during the crash, while mechanical and human factors were yet to be investigated. 

At a news conference after the incident, Yiu said airport officials gave the correct instructions to the plane and that there were signs on the runway to guide aircraft, CBS News partner BBC News reported. He said the plane turned off the runway and crashed through fencing alongside the path when it struck the patrol car, which was driving down a road on the opposite side of the fence, according to BBC News.

“Normally, the plane is not supposed to turn towards the sea,” Yiu said at the news conference.