The US Navy (USN) finally managed to remove from the sea a Boeing P-8A Poseidon that had overshot the runway at the Kaneohe air station in Hawaii on November 20.
Images shared by the service show the aircraft, a Boeing 737-800 converted for maritime patrol and anti-submarine warfare, being brought back to dry land.
To carry out the operation, members of the Navy and Marines had to remove fuel from the tanks and then inflate airbags to make the aircraft float and roll over them.
Special care was also taken with the landing gear, so that it did not hit corals. The operation took more than seven hours amid the rise and fall of the tide, being interrupted on Saturday and completed on Sunday. Divers monitored the situation in the water.
The P-8A Poseidon, registration 561 and part of the Patrol Squadron Four (VP-4), was returning from a training mission and during landing it failed to stop, tilting to the left until it fell into the sea.
The long time it remained in salt water may have damaged several parts of the P-8A, such as antennas, engines and other equipment, but the US Navy said it intends to recover the aircraft for flight.
One of the first tasks will be to deep wash the jet, to remove the salt water and then begin checking the condition of the aircraft.
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The P-8A Poseidon is currently the most successful maritime patrol aircraft on the market, with more than 160 aircraft in service. Canada has just confirmed the acquisition of up to 16 of these jets to replace its P-140 Aurora turboprops starting in 2026.
