U.S. Navy Works to Salvage Plane From Fragile Hawaiian Bay

In the crystal-clear waters of Kaneohe Bay, a U.S. Navy patrol aircraft that weighs over 130,000 pounds is stuck atop a fragile reef ecosystem.

The P-8A Poseidon plane ended up there after overshooting the runway at a Marine Corps base in Hawaii last month, careening into the water, leaving nine crew members scrambling to safety and the Navy trying to figure out what had gone wrong and how to get it out safely.

Underwater footage appeared to show the plane partly afloat, with at least one wheel creating a gouge in the fragile coral.

On Friday, the Navy was still working to recover the plane, which it said had returned from flying a routine training mission when it ended up in the water. The crew members were rescued from an inflatable life raft, and none were injured, according to a spokeswoman at the base.

At an afternoon news conference, Rear Adm. Kevin P. Lenox said that the Navy expected to retrieve the aircraft on Saturday by using inflatable cylindrical float bags to roll the aircraft back onto land.

“We’re actually really confident in the success of this,” he said, adding that the method had been successfully used to remove a barge from a sensitive sea grass habitat without causing damage.

Earlier in the week, Admiral Lenox noted the significance of Kaneohe Bay “not just as a strategic location for the military, but as a critical ecosystem and a cherished part of the local community.”

Within about 30 minutes of the accident on Nov. 20, personnel erected a temporary floating barrier to capture any hazardous materials, according to Navy officials. Later, divers anchored and stabilized the plane to prevent it from causing further damage to the ecosystem, they said. On Sunday, the divers “executed a slow and methodical defueling process,” removing nearly 2,000 gallons of fuel from the aircraft, Admiral Lenox said at a news conference this week.

To prepare, the divers practiced connecting and disconnecting the fuel lines of a P-8A Poseidon, a model the Navy said had never been defueled underwater. They also conducted a hydrographic survey to help plan a recovery operation that minimized effects on the ecosystem, Admiral Lenox said.

The Navy said it was working with the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources to perform an independent assessment of the reef and the conditions in the area where the plane had come to a stop in Kaneohe Bay.

The bay, a popular snorkeling, swimming and fishing spot known for its colorful reefs, has only recently recovered from sewage spills in the 1960s and ’70s. Like many other reefs around the world, it is suffering the effects of climate change and overfishing.

“It’s unfortunate that this is yet another human impact on a reef system that’s already struggling under the weight of many other human impacts,” said Elizabeth Madin, an associate professor at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology. The underwater footage, she added, appeared to show dislodged and knocked-over coral, which could take years to regrow. “Corals grow really, really slowly,” she said.

The plane mishap follows the permanent closure in Hawaii last year of a Navy fuel storage facility, known as Red Hill, after it leaked petroleum into the local drinking water supply. At the news conference, Admiral Lenox acknowledged that the event had created “distrust” in the Navy. “My goal is to be open and transparent in everything we do here,” he added of the plans to salvage the plane.

Orlando Mayorquin contributed reporting.