It could take up to two weeks for crews to retrieve the wreckage of a Navy jet that crashed into San Diego Bay earlier this week, military officials said Friday.
Navy divers worked at the recovery site near Shelter Island on Friday, and as the operation continues, there may be heavy equipment near the harbor entrance.
Navy officials asked that people “stay clear of floating cranes, barges and other recovery vessels in the area and avoid interfering with ongoing recovery efforts.”
Ships will be allowed to sail through the Shelter Island basin as long as they can safely do so, officials said.
“Initial estimates suggest the recovery operation may take up to two weeks,” officials said.
The EA-18G Growler crashed Wednesday on a rainy and misty morning while executing a “go around” maneuver, meaning it had just landed and was immediately taking off. The two crew members ejected and parachuted into the bay before the plane slammed into the water.
The crew members also landed near Shelter Island, where a fishing boat crew who had witnessed the incident pulled them to safety.
Navy officials said Friday that the commander of 3rd Fleet has officially directed Explosive Ordnance Disposal Group One to lead recovery operations.
UC San Diego said it had temporarily loaned its research ship pier in San Diego Bay to the Navy to help with the recovery of the aircraft.
The jet crashed roughly in front of the docks that UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography uses for its vessels. The university has moved the ships Sally Ride and Robert Gordon Sproul to a dock elsewhere in the bay.
The military noted that during the recovery effort, debris may float and wash ashore far away from the crash site.
Officials ask that anyone who comes across it not touch it but rather report it to Naval Base Coronado by email: nbc_debris@us.navy.mil
Staff writer Gary Robbins contributed to this report.
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