Civilian boaters will regain access to the Shelter Island basin following the planned removal this weekend of heavy water-borne equipment brought in to recover the wreckage of a fighter jet that crashed into San Diego Bay two weeks ago after its crew safely ejected during an apparent mechanical emergency, the Navy advised.
Having recovered more than 15 tons of wreckage from a 13,000-square- foot underwater debris field, crews will take away the barge and crane on Sunday, 17 days after the unoccupied EA-18G Growler hurtled into the harbor and broke apart, according to USN Third Fleet command.
An estimated 9,000 pounds of remnants of the aircraft remained in the bay as of Friday, officials said. Scaled-down salvage operations were expected to continue over the next two weeks, the Navy reported.
The plane went down near Shelter Island amid rainy and misty conditions about 10:15 a.m. Feb. 12 during an aborted landing approach to Naval Air Station North Island, authorities said. Witnesses described seeing the fighter jet flying at what seemed to be unusually low altitudes just before it took a steep nosedive into the harbor.
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 for evaluations.
The cause of the accident remains under investigation, according to the Navy.
