Using one of the largest marine cranes on the East Coast, contractor teams on Jan. 18 carefully but quickly orchestrated the lift of a US Airways airplane from New York City’s icy Hudson River. The damaged Airbus A320, whose pilot miraculously and safely brought the plane down on the waterway three days before, weighed 100 tons and had filled with another 350 tons of water. Its 155 passengers and crew survived the landing.
The retrieval operation was masterminded by Weeks Marine Inc., Cranford, N.J., one of the country’s largest marine and dredging contractors, and its project partner J. Supor & Sons Inc., a Harrison, N.J.-based trucking and rigging firm. Weeks Marine President Richard S. Weeks says Supor already has an ongoing emergency contract with the National Trans-portation Safety Board and AIG, US Airways’ insurer.