Salvage crews began lifting the wreckage of American Airlines Flight 5342 from the Potomac River in Washington on Monday morning, the start of an operation that was expected to take three days.

Just after 10 a.m. Eastern, the first piece of wreckage appeared. A crane perched on a barge in the middle of the river hoisted what appeared to be one of the plane’s engines out of the water.

Boats and crew members had started gathering on the river around 8 a.m. Col. Francis Pera of the Army Corps of Engineers said Sunday that the salvage work would reveal the bodies of some of those who were still missing after the deadly collision between the jet and an Army helicopter last week.

There were 64 people aboard the jet and three in the helicopter, none of whom survived. Remains of 55 victims have been recovered, officials said Sunday afternoon. Recovery crews are continuing to search the cold and murky water for bodies.

After being lifted from the river, the plane will be placed on a flatbed trailer and taken to a hangar to be studied as part of the investigation into the crash.

The collision on Wednesday night, the worst plane crash in the United States in two decades, occurred in clear skies as the jet approached Ronald Reagan National Airport around 9 p.m.

Federal investigators have said it is too early to speculate about the causes of the crash. But it has raised concerns about staffing, congestion and safety at one of the nation’s busiest airports.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Claire Moses/Al Drago
c. 2025 The New York Times Company