Authorities have started retrieving parts of a World War II-vintage seaplane that crash in the Hudson River last week, killing the pilot.
The National Transportation Safety Board tells the Middletown Times Herald-Record that about a quarter of the wreckage had been recovered as of Tuesday. That included the cabin door and parts of the fuselage of the Grumman G44A Widgeon.
The crash on Thursday killed 72-year-old Michael Braunstein, who had taken off alone from a lake at his home in the Columbia County town of Copake.
The NTSB will issue a preliminary report on the crash soon after the debris has been recovered, but a final report will take about a year.
Braunstein was an experienced pilot. Records show he'd owned the seaplane, manufactured in 1943, for many years.
