HONOLULU (KHON2) – The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has released the first underwater images of a Boeing 737 cargo plane that crashed off the coast of Oahu on July 2, shortly after takeoff.
The NTSB on Friday said major components of the airplane, including both wings and tail, both engines and forward fuselage, were located on the sea floor at depths between 360 to 420 feet. Investigators located the wreckage using the Side Scan Sonar and Remotely Operated Vehicle operations.
However, the depth of wreckage is too deep to send divers to recover flight data and cockpit voice recorders. The investigative team is developing plans to recover the aircraft.
FILE – Submerged wreckage of a plane that crashed off Oahu on July 2. The aft fuselage, both engines and forward fuselage were located at depths between 360 and 420 feet, July 7, 2021. (Sea Engineering Inc. photo) 
FILE – Submerged wreckage of a plane that crashed off Oahu on July 2. The aft fuselage, both engines and forward fuselage were located at depths between 360 and 420 feet, July 7, 2021. (Sea Engineering Inc. photo)
Last weekend, officials said small amount of floating debris was recovered and taken to a Coast Guard Air Station where it will be examined.
The Transair cargo flight was en route to Maui when it lost both of its engines, crashing about a mile and a half off of Oahu. The Coast Guard and State Department of Transportation Airport Firefighters responded to the call and rescued both of the pilots that were onboard.
“The pilots had reported engine trouble and were attempting to return to Honolulu when they were forced to land the aircraft in the water,” the Federal Aviation previously confirmed.
Investigators have completed more than 12 interviews with the flight crew, Transair personnel and FAA workers.
NTSB also released the following new information on Friday:
- The maintenance records for the airplane have been documented and reviewed by the NTSB’s airplane systems, powerplants, and maintenance records groups.
- Investigators examined a sister ship to become familiar with the configuration.
- A fuel sample from another airplane that was fueled on the same night was tested, and no irregularities were found.
- Sea Engineering, Inc. provided ROV and Side Scan Sonar support for the survey of the debris of flight 810 approximately two miles offshore from Ewa Beach. SEI used their 43-ft Workboat, ‘Huki Pono,’ for ROV operations in combination with Chinook ROV, outfitted with a secondary GoPro video recording system, ultra-short-base wavelength transponder and Hypack Navigation and DGPS to monitor and record the ROV position on the seafloor.
- Powerplants, systems, structures, maintenance records, air traffic control, and operations/human performance groups have completed on scene work.
Investigators will be leaving Oahu this weekend then return later to recover the plane.