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Recovery of seaplane wreckage could take days

MARINE safety investigators have warned it could still be days before the grim task of retrieving the wreckage of the seaplane that crashed and killed six people at Cowan Creek can start.

MARINE safety investigators have warned it could still be days before the grim task of retrieving the wreckage of the seaplane that crashed and killed six people at Cowan Creek can start.

Yesterday officials from the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau, police marine command and divers gathered at Apple Tree Bay at Bobbin Head to devise “a plan of attack” to retrieve the doomed seaplane.

At least 10 officials were gathered at the popular boat ramp, as a police boat arrived to take them out to the wreck around the headland at Jerusalem Bay.

It could take days to recover the wreckage of the seaplane. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins
It could take days to recover the wreckage of the seaplane. Picture: AAP Image/Dean Lewins

An ATSB official said at this stage crews are still planning when and how they will retrieve the wreck, but said it wouldn’t be for a number of days.

There are talks the complicated retrieval, which will require a joint effort from emergency services, could happen on Thursday.

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After the police boat took them around to the bay, crews inspected the site and its surroundings. The plane is submerged in 13.5 metres of water.

Officers and investigators inspected the site for several hours, looking at areas the plane would have travelled through. The police boat also drove past the Cottage Point Inn restaurant — the approximate takeoff site — and then to the final crash site.

They were at the crash site for half an hour.

Original URL: https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/recovery-of-seaplane-wreckage-could-take-days/news-story/097b14ae305cb77256c2c9a73f09349a