The Navy will convene an investigation into Monday’s incident in Hawaii where a Navy P-8A Poseidon reconnaissance and surveillance aircraft overshot a runway and ended up in Hawaii’s Kaneohe Bay, officials said.
Three pilots along with a crew of two officers and four enlisted personnel were aboard the aircraft at the time, but no injuries were reported, officials said. The Poseidon belonging to Whidbey Island, Wash.-based Patrol Squadron 4 was landing to land at Marine Corps Air Station Kaneohe Bay when, for undetermined reasons, the aircraft ran off the runway and went into the shallow bay just before 2 p.m. local Hawaii time. The weather at the time was cloudy and breezy.
The P-8A Poseidon, which is based on the Boeing 737 airplane, remained in the bay as of late Tuesday.
“The Navy will convene an investigation to determine the cause and contributing factors of the mishap,” San Diego-based U.S. 3rd Fleet officials said in a statement issued Tuesday night.
The aircraft ended up just offshore from the end of the runway, its fuselage seemingly floating in the sand and coral-covered bay. First responders and emergency crews who reached the scene set out floating barriers to contain any fuel to spread across the bay. “Divers from Mobile Diving and Salvage Unit 1 worked overnight to help stabilize the aircraft,” officials said in the statement.
“Preliminary assessment indicates the aircraft is structurally intact, and there was no sign of fuel leaking from the aircraft,” they said. “More information will be released as it becomes available.”
A response team was formed to address aircraft recovery, force protection and environmental concerns, officials said.
