The jetliner that splashed down in the Hudson River last week after losing power in both its engines will be dismantled in a New Jersey salvage yard before the pieces are taken elsewhere to be inspected.
Jason Marchioni, a manager at Weeks Marine, the country's largest marine contractor, said workers from his company will take apart the US Airways jetliner at its Jersey City facility.
The plane was raised out of the water by a gigantic crane late Saturday night.
“I was surprised at how intact the plane was,'' Marchioni said. “There were some bottom panels that were damaged. Other than that, it looked pretty good."
No work was to be done on the plane Monday, he said.
It was surrounded by company workers, along with representatives on the national Transportation Safety Board, New York police, and the FBI, Marchioni said.
He said the NTSB estimated it would take “a week or two" to disassemble the plane to it can be taken to warehouses at an undisclosed location where the parts can be examined in minute detail.
The crane that Weeks used is one of the largest in the country, capable of lifting 1 million pounds.
The search for the plane's missing left engine was suspended until Tuesday because ice floes in the river make it too dangerous to put divers or special sonar equipment in the water.
The pilot, Chesley B. “Sully" Sullenberger, is credited with saving the lives of all 155 people aboard the plane when he decided to ditch it in the Hudson rather than try to make it across densely populated northern New Jersey to Teterboro Airport a few miles away.
He reported striking a flock of birds shortly after takeoff, disabling both engines, although federal investigators have not determined what caused the incident.
