feet when the plane struck the river. Cook's statement to investigators, taken independently at a separate hospital, confirmed that they struck the river just as Hlavacek was saying "five hundred feet". Recovery of the wreckage of the aircraft began as soon as weather conditions permitted, with 25 percent of the plane recovered by February 5, and 50 percent by the following day. The day after the crash, salvage cranes attempted to raise the fuselage of the aircraft to the surface of the water, but they were only briefly successful before it broke apart and most of it fell back into the water. The tail section was raised by crews on the evening of February 5, and newspaper articles reported that the damage to that section suggested that the aircraft may have crashed in a "nose up" position, as though the pilot had noticed at the last minute that he was well short of the runway. Divers were brought in to locate missing sections of the aircraft beneath the surface of the water, but recovery efforts were hindered by high winds, strong river currents, and murky waters. Some pieces of the plane had been swept away by currents and had been found as far away as Northport, Long Island, more than away. Each piece was identified, tagged, and cleaned off, and relocated to Hangar 9 of the Marine Air Terminal of LaGuardia Airport. The nose section and cockpit were recovered late on February 7. The cockpit was salvaged in good condition, with the spring-wound clock on the instrument panel still working when the section was recovered from the river. Investigators predicted that it would take at least two weeks to check all of the instruments to determine if they were functioning correctly at the time of the accident. Early reports from the investigation revealed that the condition of the flight control surfaces revealed that at the time of impact, the aircraft had not been in a violent turn or dive when it hit the water. Altimeter concerns On February 9, the FAA announced that flying restrictions would be put in place on bad-weather landings by Lockheed Electra aircraft. The restrictions increased the minimum visibility conditions required for landing in poor conditions. In communications with flight crews, both American Airlines and Eastern Airlines described the restrictions as temporary, likely lasting only a few days. Lockheed Aircraft Corporation expressed disappointment in the new