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NEW YORK – The battered, twisted left engine of the US Airways plane that crash-landed in the Hudson River was recovered Friday, after an eight-day struggle to find the wreckage and pull it from the murky water.

Using a large, floating crane, salvage crews gently set the engine on a barge. Shards of metal and wiring hung from the engine, and a large portion of the outer shell appeared to be missing as it was lifted from the river bottom, 65 feet below the surface.

Immediately after the engine was set down, National Transportation Safety Board investigators began documenting and photographing it as part of their probe into the plane's remarkable landing.

New York Police Department and New Jersey State Police harbor officers working with a federal sonar expert on Tuesday located an object 16 feet long and 8 feet wide on the river floor, near where Flight 1549 made its emergency landing Jan. 15.

Divers confirmed Wednesday that the object was the Airbus A320's engine.

Then salvage crews began the tedious work of rigging cables and securing the engine to secure it for movement from the frigid river. The engine didn't appear to be leaking any oil or fuel, though water gushed out as it was lifted.

The Charlotte, N.C.-bound plane splashed down in the river after hitting a flock of birds and apparently losing power in both engines shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.

All 155 people on board survived.

Earlier this week, the NTSB said the right engine revealed evidence of "soft body damage," and "organic material" was found in the engine and on the wings and fuselage. A single feather also was found.

The NTSB said samples of the material have been sent to the U.S. Agriculture Department for a DNA analysis.

A spokesman for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which helped recover the engine, said rapid river currents posed a problem for divers earlier Friday.

"We're continuing to make sure the work area is safe by collecting dirt and debris that is coming down the river," spokesman Thomas Creamer said.

The engine will be taken to a facility in Jersey City, N.J., where the rest of the plane was shuttled by barge last weekend.

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WASHINGTON – Investigators said Wednesday they have found the remains of what may be a bird in the engine of the US Airways jet that made a dramatic landing in New York's Hudson River. The National Transportation Safety Board said an examination of the Airbus 320's right engine revealed evidence of "soft body damage" and that "organic material" was found in the engine and on the wings and fuselage.

Samples of the material have gone to the Agriculture Department for a complete DNA analysis, the board said.

A single feather was found attached to a flap track on the wing and will be examined by experts at the Smithsonian Institution.

The pilot of Flight 1549, Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, reported a "double bird strike" and a loss of power in both engines before gliding the plane to an emergency river landing last week. All 155 people on board the flight to Charlotte, N.C., survived.

The board also reported Wednesday that:

_divers located the airliner's left engine in about 50 feet of water near the area of the river where the aircraft ditched. The board predicted the engine would be recovered Thursday.

_on Jan. 13, two days before the accident, the aircraft's right engine experienced a power surge. Subsequent maintenance work included the replacement of a temperature probe. "Investigators from the NTSB's maintenance records group are researching this report by examining applicable maintenance records and procedures," the board said in a statement.

New York Police Department and New Jersey State Police harbor officers working with a sonar expert from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration got a reading Tuesday of an object 16 feet long and 8 feet wide near the spot where Flight 1549 made its emergency landing.

Divers went into the icy, murky water and located the left engine in about 10 minutes, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Investigators want to inspect the engine to better understand how it stopped running after the plane hit a flock of birds shortly after taking off from LaGuardia Airport. Most of the Airbus A320 is at a New Jersey marina, where investigators will study it.

Police already located several pieces of debris from the flight, including 35 flotation seat cushions, 12 life jackets, 15 pieces of luggage, two briefcases, 11 purses, 15 suit jackets and shirts, four shoes and two hats, Browne said.

NEW YORK – Authorities using sonar in the search for the missing engine from US Airways Flight 1549 detected something about the size of the massive aircraft part deep in the frigid, murky Hudson River on Tuesday, but divers ran out of daylight before they could locate the object.

Crews will resume their search Wednesday. Police have already located several pieces of debris from the flight, including 35 flotation seat cushions, 12 life jackets, 15 pieces of luggage, two brief cases, 11 purses, 15 suit jackets and shirts, four shoes, and two hats, according to NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

The missing left engine, however, is the most coveted prize. Investigators will examine it along with the plane's attached right engine to better understand how the jet conked out Thursday after hitting a flock of birds. All 155 people survived the miracle crash landing on the river, and US Airways said Tuesday that not even a pet perished.

New York Police Department harbor officers working with a sonar expert from the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration got a reading on an object 16 feet long and 8 feet wide in about 60 feet of water north of the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, near where the plane made its emergency landing. The engine is about the same size as the object picked up by sonar.

Swift currents made it impossible to drop a robotic device with a video camera to confirm whether it is the engine, and evening fell before divers could find anything.

The developments came as hero pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger attended President Barack Obama's inauguration. All the media-shy Sullenberger would say is, "I'm not allowed to say anything."

Since the crash landing, the NYPD has recovered more than 40 pieces of the aircraft, including four window exits and an access panel door. All the debris and passengers' belongings are being turned over to the National Transportation Safety Board for its investigation into the crash landing.

Two days before the emergency landing, the same plane experienced a compressor stall while in flight. Passengers aboard the flight that left LaGuardia Airport on Jan. 13 reported hearing loud bangs from the right side of the plane. A short time later the situation appeared to return to normal and the flight continued on to Charlotte, N.C.

The compressor is essentially a fan that draws air into the engine and helps create thrust for the jet. A compressor stall is a situation of abnormal airflow resulting from a stall of the blades within the compressor. Compressor stalls can vary in severity from a momentary engine power drop to a complete loss of compression requiring a reduction in the fuel flow to the engine.

The stall will no doubt be looked at as the investigation moves forward, but pilots and aviation experts doubt the malfunction made the plane more vulnerable to the bird strikes that are believed to have imperiled the Airbus A320.

NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said that the board planned to interview the pilot who was at the controls of the aircraft during the earlier incident. But he noted that investigators so far have not uncovered "any anomalies or malfunctions."

Several experts said that a compressor stall in one engine generally doesn't create much of a problem and is unlikely to have factored into the later crash-landing. And they added that the engine likely would have been closely analyzed before the plane was cleared to fly again.

Basil Barimo, vice president for operations and safety for the Air Transport Association, said compressor stalls are fairly benign events. "They are not something that brings down an airplane," Barimo said.

Retired Delta Air Lines pilot Joe Mazzone, who has flown planes that had compressor stalls, said he doesn't believe a compressor stall could have created or added to Thursday's total engine failure.

"If you have a big Canadian goose ingested in those engines, I would bet the farm that's what caused the engines to quit," Mazzone said. "The compressor stall would be a totally different issue unrelated to those birds."