The engine of an airplane that went down in a swampy and wooded area off of Boyce Road in Corfu was recovered today after being dug out from under more than 10 feet of mud, Sheriff William Sheron said this afternoon.
"One of the biggest problems we've had," Sheron said, "is water going back into the hole. It's a very high water table right there."
The search for pieces of the airplane, which disintegrated on impact, Sheron said, is complete and the parts are being shipped to Nashville for further investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The search for human remains continues. Mud has been removed from the crash site, Sheron said, and crews will sift through it in an attempt to recover more remains of the deceased. That process will go through at least all of tomorrow and perhaps into Wednesday.
Attorneys Steve Barnes and Elizabeth Barnes died in the crash at about noon Friday when the 2009 SOCATA TBM-850 fell from the sky as it passed over Genesee County.
The cause of the crash remains undetermined. A few minutes before the plane veered off course and started a rapid descent, the pilot, Steve Barnes, told an air traffic controller "everything is fine."
The plane does not have what is commonly referred to as a "black box" but some flight data is recorded on the plane. Sheron said the recording disk is about the size of a SIM* card (like you have in your mobile phone) and it has not been located.
More personal items of the victims were recovered today. Sheron said the ID of one victim has been recovered and other items have been recovered that were personal to the individuals.
"My team is doing a very, very thorough job on collecting human remains," said Coroner Jeff McIntyre.
Today, he said, the team dug as far as the mini-excavator would go, McIntyre said. By that point, no other items related to the crash were being found so, he said, he's confident they've dug down as far as needed to recover any human remains.
The human remains are being sent to the Monroe County Medical Examiner's Office for examination and DNA confirmation of the victim's identities.
*The acronym stands for subscriber identity module, or subscriber identification module.
Previously:
- Small airplane out of Buffalo crashes in swampy area off Boyce Road in Corfu
- Investigation continues into cause of plane crash in Corfu
- Coroner's Office begins process of recovering remains from crash site
- Jacobs, Higgins call on NTSB to send investigators to crash site in Corfu
- Video: Press conference near site of Friday's plane crash in Corfu
