Crews remove wreckage of small plane that crashed into shallow lagoon off San Francisco Bay

Plane wreckage removed from SF Bay Area lagoon

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — The wreckage of small plane that crashed in a lagoon off San Francisco Bay and killed the three people on board was recovered Friday. The founder of a local steel company was believed to be among the dead.

Crews spent several hours raising the wreckage from the lagoon bottom with air bags, then used a large crane to hoist the wrecked plane onto dry land.

The wreckage was kept behind a privacy screen to keep the plane, and two bodies inside, out of view.

Divers recovered the body of a 40-year-old woman outside the plane shortly after the crash Thursday.

The twin-engine Beechcraft Queen Air plummeted into the lagoon around noon after taking off from nearby San Carlos Airport.

The San Mateo County Coroner’s office has not released the identities of any of the victims. But Charlene Marshall, an employee of R.E. Borrmann’s Steel Co., has said that the company’s founder, 92-year-old Robert Borrmann, was on the plane.

Recovery efforts had been hampered by contamination caused by a 48,000-gallon sewage spill in the lagoon last week, as well as a small amount of fuel leaking from the aircraft.

Officials are urging residents to avoid contact with the lagoon, said Redwood City Fire Department spokesman Malcolm Smith.

Investigators with the Federal Aviation Administration planned to have the wreckage transported to Sacramento, where it would be examined as part of their investigation into what caused the crash, Smith said.