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Crews finished recovering the wreckage of a floatplane that crashed and killed ten people onboard in Puget Sound, according to KING 5.
Reporters say operations wrapped up Friday (September 30), nearly three weeks after a DHC-3 Turbine Otter took off from Friday Harbor, crashed, and sunk to the bottom of Mutiny Bay near Whidbey Island. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said they recovered a majority of the wreckage and moved it to a secure facility for further investigation.
Officials deployed a crane and a remotely-operated machine to recover the remains since the floatplane was so deep in the water.
Nine adults and a child died in the tragic incident, and at least six bodies have been recovered, so far. One of the victims, Gabbie Hanna, was recovered by a Good Samaritan.
Officials are still looking into how the floatplane crashed, which could take one to two years. They released a preliminary report on September 16, but the information could be subject to change as they continue the probe.
As for the families of the victims, they're planning on doing their own crash investigation since the NTSB's findings aren't admissible in court, according to their legal team, per KING 5.