WWII plane pulled from Hudson after crash that killed pilot

Officials remove a plane out of the Hudson River on Saturday, May 28, 2016, a day after it crashed in North Bergen, N.J.
Officials remove a plane out of the Hudson River on Saturday, May 28, 2016, a day after it crashed in North Bergen, N.J.

NEW YORK — Police divers and Army Corps of Engineers personnel retrieved the wreckage of a World War II plane from the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey on Saturday after the vintage aircraft crashed, killing the pilot.

The P-47 Thunderbolt crashed Friday during a promotion for the American Airpower Museum, which is celebrating the 75th anniversary of the P-47 this weekend.

Scuba divers recovered the body of the pilot, 56-year-old William Gordon, of Key West, Fla., about three hours after the crash.

The plane was loaded onto a barge Saturday and taken to a heliport in lower Manhattan, where investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board can examine it as part of their investigation.

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