Salvage teams lifted the Airbus that crashed into New York's Hudson River apparently after hitting a flock of birds following take-off.
The operation to lift the US Airways plane was hampered by river currents and icy waters, but was finally completed during the night.
Lifting straps from a huge crane were placed around the submerged plane, which was moored to a Manhattan dock soon after ditching in the Hudson last Thursday.
Because the fuselage was flooded the lifting was conducted slowly, allowing water to drain.
Pilot Chesley Sullenberger, whose skill was credited with saving all 155 people aboard, testified that a collision with birds certainly caused the disaster.
The cockpit windscreen 'was literally filled with big, dark brown birds,' he told investigators, according to Kitty Higgins, from the National Transport Safety Board.
Simultaneously, the pilot and co-pilot heard booms, felt the impact, the power went down and they smelled 'burning birds.'
With both engines out, the captain decided that the only place he could land without endangering people on the ground was the Hudson.
After a perfect water landing, all 150 passengers and five crew were able to walk out of the sinking aircraft and enter rescue boats.
