A federal judge in San Diego sentenced Jinchao Wei, 25, to 200 months. A federal jury convicted Wei in August of six crimes, including espionage. He was paid more than $12,000 for the information he sold, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a statement.

Wei, an engineer for the amphibious assault ship USS Essex, was one of two California-based sailors charged on Aug. 3, 2023, with providing sensitive military information to China. The other, Wenheng Zhao, was sentenced to more than two years in 2024 after he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving a bribe in violation of his official duties.

U.S. officials have for years expressed concern about the espionage threat they say the Chinese government poses, bringing criminal cases in recent years against Beijing intelligence operatives who have stolen sensitive government and commercial information, including through illegal hacking.

Wei was recruited via social media in 2022 by an intelligence officer who portrayed himself as a naval enthusiast working for the state-owned China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation, prosecutors said.

Evidence presented in court showed Wei told a friend that the person was “extremely suspicious” and that it was “quite obviously” espionage. Wei disregarded the friend’s advice to delete the contact and instead moved conversations with the intelligence officer to a different encrypted messaging app Wei believed was more secure, prosecutors said.

Over the course of 18 months, Wei sent the officer photos and videos of the Essex, advised him of the location of various Navy ships and told him about the Essex’s defensive weapons, prosecutors said.

Wei sold the intelligence officer 60 technical and operating manuals, including those for weapons control, aircraft and deck elevators. The manuals contained export control warnings and detailed the operations of multiple systems aboard the Essex and similar ships.

He was a petty officer second class, which is a enlisted sailor’s rank.

The Navy’s website says the Essex is equipped to transport and support a Marine Corps landing force of over 2,000 troops during an air and amphibious assault.

In a letter to the judge before sentencing, Wei apologized and said he shouldn’t have shared anything with the person who he had considered a friend. Wei said “introversion and loneliness” clouded his judgment.

But today only 12 are still alive — all centenarians — and this year none were able to make the pilgrimage to Hawaii to mark the event Sunday.

That means no one who attended had firsthand memories of serving during the attack, which killed more than 2,300 troops and catapulted the U.S. into World War II. The development is not a surprise and is an evolution of an ongoing trend. As survivors fade, their descendants and the public are increasingly turning to other ways of learning about the bombing.

“The idea of not having a survivor there for the first time — I just, I don’t know — it hurt my heart in a way I can’t describe,” said Kimberlee Heinrichs, whose 105-year-old father Ira “Ike” Schab had to cancel plans to fly in from Oregon after falling ill.

Survivors have been present every year in recent memory except for 2020, when the Navy and the National Park Service closed the observance to the general public because of coronavirus pandemic health risks.

“I can still see what was happening.”

The ceremony began with a moment of silence at 7:55 a.m. local, the same time the attack began on Dec. 7, 1941. Solemn rituals followed.

Fighter jets flew overhead in “missing man formation,” in which one jet peels off to symbolize those lost. Survivors typically present wreaths to honor the dead, though active-duty troops have assumed this job in recent years. Survivors also would rise to salute active duty sailors who themselves salute as their ship passes the USS Arizona Memorial, which sits above submerged hull of the battleship sunk in the attack.

About 2,000 survivors attended the 50th anniversary event in 1991. A few dozen have showed in recent decades. Last year, only two made it. That is out of an estimated 87,000 troops stationed on Oahu that day.

Many survivors were jovial despite the occasion, happy to catch up with old friends and pose for photographs. Even so, harrowing recollections were seldom far from their minds.

In 2023, Harry Chandler gazed across the water while telling an Associated Press reporter how he was raising the flag at a mobile hospital in the hills above the base when he saw Japanese planes fly in and drop bombs. Chandler and his fellow Navy hospital corpsmen jumped in trucks to help the injured.

He spoke of seeing the Arizona explode, and of hearing sailors trapped on the capsized USS Oklahoma desperately tapping on their ship’s hull to summon rescue. He helped care for Oklahoma sailors after crews cut holes in the battleship.

“I can still see what was happening,” Chandler said. He died the next year at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida.

Lessons from the past

The bombing has long held different meanings for different people, the historian Emily S. Rosenberg wrote in her book “A Date Which Will Live: Pearl Harbor in American Memory.”

Some say it highlights the need for a well-prepared military and a vigilant foreign policy. To some it evokes then-President Franklin D. Roosevelt administration’s “ineptitude or deceit” and the unfair scapegoating of the military. Others focus on the “treachery” of Japan or the heroic acts of individual troops, she wrote.

Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, Chandler said: “Be prepared.”

“We should have known that was going to happen. The intelligence has to be better,” he said.

Lou Conter, who was Arizona’s last living survivor when he died last year at 102, told the AP in 2019 he liked to attend to remember those who lost their lives.

“It’s always good to come back and pay respect to them and give them the top honors that they deserve,” Conter said.

Heinrichs’ father has been six times since 2016. The former tuba player on the USS Dobbin likes to go not only to remember those killed but also in place of his late band mates; his three brothers who fought in World War II; and the now-deceased Pearl Harbor survivors he has met.

Recording the remembrances before the survivors are gone

Retired National Park Service Pearl Harbor historian Daniel Martinez said the circumstances resemble the early 20th century when Civil War veterans were dying in increasing numbers. Awareness grew that soon they wouldn’t be able to share their stories of Gettysburg and other battles, he said.

Martinez knew something similar could happen with Pearl Harbor survivors and recorded their oral histories. During a 1998 convention, he conducted interviews 12 hours a day for three days. The Park Service today has nearly 800 interviews, most on video.

“They remain as a part of the national memory of a day that changed America and changed the world,” Martinez said.

The Park Service shows some in its Pearl Harbor museum and aims to include more after renovations, said David Kilton, the agency’s Pearl Harbor interpretation, education and visitor services lead.

The Library of Congress has collections from 535 Pearl Harbor survivors, including interviews, letters, photos and diaries. Over 80% are online. They are part of the library’s Veterans History Project of firsthand recollections of veterans who served in World War I onward. Many were recorded by relatives, Eagle Scouts and other amateurs interested in documenting history.

The Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors gives presentations in schools and marches in parades to share the stories of their families. The California chapter has added six new members this year, including two great-grandchildren of survivors.

“When they’re all gone, we’re still going to be here,” said Deidre Kelley, the group’s president. “And it’s our intent to keep the memory alive as long as we’re alive.”

The incident occurred when ordnance detonated overhead prematurely during Saturday’s exercise at Camp Pendleton, the California Highway Patrol said in a news release.

Newsom had strongly objected to the firing of munitions over Interstate 5 for safety reasons. The Democrat closed a 17-mile (27 kilometers) stretch of the road connecting Los Angeles and San Diego during the drills, which were held to mark the upcoming 250th birthday of the Marine Corps.

The incident occurred in an area where officers had shut down traffic, the highway patrol said.

A Marine Corps spokesperson said the service was aware of “a possible airborne detonation” of a 155mm artillery round outside the exercise’s designated impact area.

“Following established safety protocols, firing was suspended. No injuries occurred and the demonstration concluded as scheduled,” Capt. Gregory Dreibelbis of the I Marine Expeditionary Force said in an emailed statement.

An investigation has been initiated, he said.

“We are committed to determining the incident’s root cause and applying findings to future missions,” Dreibelbis said.

The Marine Corps had said there was nothing unsafe about the exercise and that it was unnecessary to disrupt traffic on I-5.

An incident report filed by the highway patrol said one officer heard what sounded like pebbles falling on his motorcycle and about 3 feet (91 centimeters) around him. His motorcycle was not damaged. He found a 1 inch-by-0.5 inch (2.5 cm-by-1.3 cm) piece of shrapnel nearby.

One unoccupied patrol vehicle was hit by shrapnel. Officers found a 2 inch-by-0.5 inch (5 cm-by-1.3 cm) piece of shrapnel on the vehicle. It left a small dent and scratch on the vehicle’s hood.

Officers said they notified the Marine Corps, which then canceled the firing of additional live ordnance over the freeway. Officers didn’t find any additional metal on freeway lanes and reopened the road.

Newsom, a Democrat, posted a comment on the social media site X Sunday.

“We love our Marines and owe a debt of gratitude to Camp Pendleton, but next time, the Vice President and the White House shouldn’t be so reckless with people’s lives for their vanity projects,” Newsom said.

Vance, a Republican, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the base in north San Diego County for the Nov. 10 anniversary of the Marine Corps’ founding and to watch troops demonstrate a beach assault. Vance spent four years in the Marines and served a tour in Iraq.

The charges against Pfc. Dewayne Arthur Johnson II stem from the disappearance of his wife, Mischa Johnson, last year, U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii said in a news release. The 19-year-old was last seen on July 31 at her home on Schofield Barracks, an Army installation on Oahu, when she was six months pregnant.

She is presumed dead, the Army said.

The Army said the “general nature of the charges” are for the killing of his wife, intentionally killing her unborn child and obstruction of justice. Other charges involve providing false official statements, possession of child sexual abuse images and the production and distribution of child sexual abuse images, the Army said.

The Army took Johnson into custody in August. It wasn’t immediately clear if he had a civilian attorney. A phone number listed for him rang unanswered Wednesday.

Johnson, from Frederick, Maryland, is a cavalry scout. He enlisted in the Army and attended training at Fort Moore, Georgia, in November 2022. He was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division in 2023.

Johnson’s case will be assigned to a military judge who will schedule dates for an arraignment, pretrial hearings and a trial, the Army said. Charging documents will be available after Johnson is arraigned, according to a spokesperson for the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel.

Chandler died Monday at a senior living center in Tequesta, Florida, according to Ron Mahaffee, the husband of his granddaughter Kelli Fahey. Chandler had congestive heart failure, but Mahaffee said doctors and nurses noted his advanced age when giving a cause of death.

The third Pearl Harbor survivor to die in the past few weeks, Chandler was a hospital corpsman 3rd class on Dec. 7, 1941, when waves of Japanese fighter planes dropped bombs and fired machine guns on battleships in the harbor and plunged the U.S. into World War II.

He told The Associated Press in 2023 that he saw the planes approach as he was raising the flag that morning at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights, which is in the hills overlooking the base.

“I thought they were planes coming in from the states until I saw the bombs dropping,” Chandler said. His first instinct was to take cover and “get the hell out of here.”

“I was afraid that they’d start strafing,” he said.

His unit rode trucks down to attend the injured. He said in a Pacific Historic Parks oral history interview that he boarded a boat to help pluck wounded sailors from the water.

The harbor was covered in oil from exploding ships, so Chandler washed the sailors off after lifting them out. He said he was too focused on his work to be afraid.

“It got so busy you weren’t scared. Weren’t scared at all. We were busy. It was after you got scared,” Chandler said.

He realized later that he could have been killed, “But you didn’t think about that while you were busy taking care of people.”

The attack killed more than 2,300 U.S. servicemen. Nearly half, or 1,177, were sailors and Marines on board the USS Arizona, which sank nine minutes after it was bombed.

Chandler’s memories came flowing back when he visited Pearl Harbor for a 2023 ceremony commemorating the 82nd anniversary of the bombing.

“I look out there, and I can still see what’s going on. I can still see what was happening,” Chandler told The Associated Press.

Asked what he wanted Americans to know about Pearl Harbor, he said: “Be prepared.”

“We should have known that was going to happen. The intelligence has to be better,” he said.

After the war Chandler worked as a painter and wallpaper hanger and bought an upholstery business with his brother. He also joined the Navy reserves, retiring as a senior chief in 1981.

Chandler was born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, and lived for most of his adult life in nearby South Hadley, Mahaffee said. In recent decades he split his time between Massachusetts and Florida.

An avid golfer, he shot five hole-in-ones during his lifetime, his grandson-in-law added.

Chandler had one biological daughter and adopted two daughters from his second marriage, to Anna Chandler, who died in 2004. He is survived by two daughters, nine grandchildren, 17 great-grandchildren and five great-great-grandchildren.

Military historian J. Michael Wenger has estimated that there were some 87,000 military personnel on the island of Oahu the day of the attack.

Bob Fernandez, who served on the USS Curtiss, died Dec. 11 at age 100, and Warren Upton, 105, who served on the USS Utah, died on Christmas Day.

Upton died Wednesday at a hospital in Los Gatos, California, after suffering a bout of pneumonia, said Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors.

The Utah, a battleship, was moored at Pearl Harbor when Japanese planes began bombing the Hawaii naval base in the early hours of Dec. 7, 1941, in an attack that propelled the U.S. into World War II.

Upton told The Associated Press in 2020 that he had been getting ready to shave when he felt the first torpedo hit the Utah. He recalled that no one on board knew what made the ship shake. Then, the second torpedo hit and the ship began to list and capsize.

The then-22-year-old swam ashore to Ford Island, where he jumped in a trench to avoid Japanese planes strafing the area. He stayed for about 30 minutes until a truck came and took him to safety.

Upton said he didn’t mind talking about what happened during the attack. Instead, what upset him was that he kept losing shipmates over the years. By 2020, there were only three crew members of the Utah still alive, including himself.

There were an estimated 87,000 military personnel on Oahu on the day of the attack, according to military historian J. Michael Wenger. After Upton’s death, there are only 15 still alive.

Higgins died on March 19 of natural causes at home in Bend, Oregon, his granddaughter Angela Norton said.

Higgins was a radioman assigned to a patrol squadron of seaplanes based at the Hawaii naval base when Japanese planes began dropping bombs on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941.

He recounted in a 2008 oral history interview how he was in his bunk inside a screened-in lanai, or porch, on the third floor of his barracks when the bombing began.

“I jumped out of my bunk and I ran over to the edge of the lanai and just as I got there, a plane went right over the barracks,” he said, according to the interview by the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.

He estimated the plane was about 50 feet to his side and 100 feet above his barracks. He described “big red meatballs” on the plane, in reference to the red circular emblem painted on the wings and fuselages of the Japanese aircraft.

“So, there was no doubt what was happening in my mind, because of the things that had been going on,” he said.

Norton called her grandfather a humble and kind man who would frequently visit schools to share stories about Pearl Harbor, World War II and the Great Depression. Norton said he wanted to teach people history so they wouldn’t repeat it.

“It was never about him,” Norton said. “The heroes were those that didn’t come home.”

Higgins was born on a farm near Mangum, Oklahoma, on July 24, 1921. He joined the Navy in 1939 and retired 20 years later. He then became an aeronautics engineer for Northrop Corporation, which later became Northrop Grumman, and other defense contractors. He worked on the B-2 Stealth Bomber, Norton said.

His wife, Winnie Ruth, died in 2004 at the age of 82. They had been married for 60 years.

Not long after he went into hospice last Thursday, he told his granddaughter, “I’m ready to go see Winnie Ruth.”

“I said, ‘It’s OK, go home. Be with Jesus and be with Winnie Ruth,’” Norton said. “‘It’s okay to do that. Leave us. You’ve had it’s such a good and full life.’”

There are now 22 survivors of the attack still living, said Kathleen Farley, the California state chair of the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors. Farley said other survivors may still be living but not all joined the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association when it was formed in 1958 and so may not be known to her.

About 2,400 servicemen were killed in the bombing, which launched the U.S. into World War II. The USS Arizona battleship alone lost 1,177 sailors and Marines, nearly half the death toll.

About 87,000 military personnel were on Oahu on Dec. 7, according to a rough estimate compiled by military historian J. Michael Wenger.

Higgins is survived by two children, two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. The family plans to hold a memorial service at a church in Bend on Thursday followed by a ceremony with full military honors. Afterward his body will be flown to California, where he will be buried next to his wife.

He went topside to see the USS Utah capsizing and Japanese planes in the air. He scurried back below deck to grab boxes of ammunition and joined a daisy chain of sailors feeding shells to an anti-aircraft gun up above. He remembers being only 140 pounds (63.50 kilograms) as a 21-year-old, but somehow finding the strength to lift boxes weighing almost twice that.

“We were pretty startled. Startled and scared to death,” Schab, now 103, said at his home in Beaverton, Oregon, where he lives with his daughter. “We didn’t know what to expect and we knew that if anything happened to us, that would be it.”

Eighty-two years later, Schab returned to Pearl Harbor Thursday on the anniversary of the attack to remember the more than 2,300 servicemen killed. He was one of five survivors at a ceremony commemorating the assault that propelled the United States into World War II. Six of the increasingly frail men had been expected, but one got sick, organizers said.

The aging pool of Pearl Harbor survivors has been rapidly shrinking. There is now just one crew member of the USS Arizona still living, 102-year-old Lou Conter of California. Two years ago, survivors who attended the 80th anniversary remembrance ceremony ranged in age from 97 to 103. They’ll be even older this time.

David Kilton, the National Park Service’s interpretation, education and visitor services lead for Pearl Harbor, noted that for many years survivors frequently volunteered to share their experiences with visitors to the historic site. That’s not possible anymore.

“We could be the best storytellers in the world and we can’t really hold a candle to those that lived it sharing their stories firsthand,” Kilton said. “But now that we are losing that generation and won’t have them very much longer, the opportunity shifts to reflect even more so on the sacrifices that were made, the stories that they did share.”

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs doesn’t keep statistics for how many Pearl Harbor survivors are still living. But department data show that of the 16 million who served in World War II, only about 120,000 were alive as of October and an estimated 131 die each day.

There were about 87,000 military personnel on Oahu at the time of the attack, according to a rough estimate compiled by military historian J. Michael Wenger.

Schab never spoke much about Pearl Harbor until about a decade ago. He’s since been sharing his story with his family, student groups and history buffs. And he’s returned to Pearl Harbor several times since.

The reason? “To pay honor to the guys that didn’t make it,” he said.

Thursday’s ceremony was held on a field across the harbor from the USS Arizona Memorial, a white structure that sits above the rusting hull of the battleship, which exploded in a fireball and sank shortly after being hit. More than 1,100 sailors and Marines from the Arizona were killed and more than 900 are entombed inside.

A moment of silence began at 7:55 a.m., the same time the attack began on Dec. 7, 1941.

Harry Chandler, 102, who was a Navy Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class, raised the flag at a mobile hospital in Aiea Heights in the hills above Pearl Harbor in 1941. Gazing over the water from his front row seat on the ceremony grounds on Thursday, Chandler said the memories of the USS Arizona blowing up still come back to him today.

“I saw these planes come, and I thought they were planes coming in from the states until I saw the bombs dropping,” Chandler said. They took cover and then rode trucks down to Pearl Harbor where they attended to the injured.

He remembers sailors trapped on the capsized USS Oklahoma tapping on the hull of their ship to get rescued, and caring for those who eventually got out after teams cut holes in the ship.

“I look out there and I can still see what’s going on. I can still see what was happening,” said Chandler, who today lives in Tequesta, Florida.

The Dobbin lost three sailors, according to Navy records. One was killed in action and two died later of wounds suffered when fragments from a bomb struck the ship’s stern. All had been manning an anti-aircraft gun.

That Sunday morning had started peacefully for Schab. He was expecting a visit from his brother, who was also in the Navy and was assigned to a naval radio station in Wahiawa, north of Pearl Harbor. The two never did get together that day.

Schab spent most of World War II in the Pacific with the Navy, going to the New Hebrides, now known as Vanuatu, and then the Mariana Islands and Okinawa.

He was never wounded. He told the Best Defense Foundation in an online interview three years ago that he must have had a guardian angel.

“You’re scared stiff, but you stagger through the events as they happen and hope everything’s going to turn out all right,” he said.

After the war, he worked on the Apollo program sending astronauts to the moon as an electrical engineer at General Dynamics. In retirement he volunteered as a state park docent in Malibu, California, explaining the migration patterns of monarch butterflies.

A tuba player in the Navy, Schab stayed close with his bandmates long after the war. For decades, they organized annual reunions, said his daughter Kimberlee Heinrichs.

Schab has slowed down in recent years. But he still gets together each week for cocktails over Zoom with younger members of his fraternity, Delta Sigma Phi. He drinks cranberry-raspberry juice.

These days, he’s happiest listening to big band jazz and audiobooks and going out to meet new people, Heinrichs said.

At his age, he’s thankful to still be able to return to Pearl Harbor. Heinrichs is going with him, along with caregivers. The family has a GoFundMe account to help them raise money for the pilgrimage.

“Just grateful that I’m still here,” Schab said. “That’s really how it feels. Grateful.”

Rush reported from Beaverton, Oregon. Associated Press researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

Rear Adm. Kevin Lenox said there was an estimated 2,000 gallons of fuel on board the Poseidon.

“The team extracted all the fuel that they could get out of those tanks. This process was completed successfully without any fuel being released into the bay,” Lenox said at a news conference. Removing the fuel will reduce the risks for the rest of the salvage operation, he said.

There were no injuries to the nine people who were on board when the plane landed Nov. 20 in shallow water just offshore of Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay. The base is about 10 miles from Honolulu.

Cmdr. Mark Anderson, who is leading the Navy’s mobile diving and salvage unit working at the site, said the plane was sitting on a mixture of coral and sand. The left engine is resting on coral. The plane rises a little with the tide, so the full weight of the plane is not on the coral, he said.

Kaneohe Bay is home to coral reefs, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond and a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks.

There may have been some minor damage to the coral but there didn’t appear to be “massive chunks missing,” Anderson said. Still, the focus currently is on stabilizing the plane and developing a plan to move it, he said.

State environmental officials expect to conduct a damage assessment once the plane is removed.

The Navy is studying two options for moving the aircraft, explained Lenox.

The first is to float it and get it within range of a crane on the runway. Then it would be lifted onto the runway and set down on its landing gear, which is still in good condition. The second option is to float it on top of cylinders and roll it up onto the runway.

Lenox said the Navy has three priorities while it does this work: safety of the salvage crew, protecting the environment and preserving the capability of the aircraft.

The Navy now has three temporary floating barriers around the P-8A aircraft at its resting spot to prevent any potential fuel spill or other contaminants from polluting the ocean.

The Navy hasn’t had indications or reports that any fuel leaked from the plane, Lenox said. The Navy also tested the removed fuel and found that no water had seeped into it, which indicated the plane’s fuel system was still intact.

In addition to the floating barriers, the Navy has placed material around the plane to help absorb any potential pollutants and provide early warning of petroleum spills. The Navy has also kept a skimmer on standby so it can remove any pollutants quickly.

On Thursday, sailors retrieved the data recorder and conducted a hydrographic survey to assess the plane’s structural integrity.

The Navy has come under intense scrutiny in Hawaii for its environmental stewardship and transparency after jet fuel leaked from a World War II-era fuel storage facility into Pearl Harbor’s drinking water in 2021. Some 6,000 Navy personnel, their dependents and civilians complained of physical ailments after the spill. After mounting pressure, the Navy agreed to drain the tanks, an operation that is currently underway.

Lenox said he is aware of the distrust in the community toward the Navy and is striving to be transparent. He said the state of Hawaii’s on-scene commander observed the defueling of the plane and requested that the Navy install a third temporary protective barrier around the plane. The Navy complied.

The Navy uses Poseidons to search for submarines and to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance. Manufactured by Boeing, the plane is a military version of the 737 passenger jet.

The plane is assigned to Patrol Squadron 4 out of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Washington state. Patrol squadrons were once based at Kaneohe Bay but now deploy to Hawaii on a rotating basis.

The Navy has flown out another P-8A from Washington state to carry out patrol duties in place of the incapacitated jet. It is flying out of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, on the other side of Oahu.

The Navy placed two temporary floating barriers around the P-8A aircraft at its resting spot in the shallow waters of Kaneohe Bay to prevent any potential fuel spill or other contaminants from polluting the ocean.

Navy officials scheduled a news conference for Monday to provide an update.

On Thursday, sailors retrieved the data recorder and conducted a hydrographic survey to assess the plane’s structural integrity.

The Navy has not said whether the plane is sitting on sand or coral in the water. State environmental officials expect to conduct a damage assessment once the plane is removed. Kaneohe Bay is home to coral reefs, an ancient Hawaiian fishpond and a breeding ground for hammerhead sharks.

In addition to the floating barriers, the Navy has placed material around the plane to help absorb any potential pollutants and provide early warning of petroleum spills. The Navy has also kept a skimmer on standby so it can remove any pollutants quickly.

There were no injuries to the nine people who were on board when the plane landed in the water on Nov. 20. Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay is about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from Honolulu.

The Navy uses P-8A planes manufactured by Boeing to search for submarines and to conduct surveillance and reconnaissance. The plane is a military version of the 737 passenger jet.

The plane is assigned to Patrol Squadron 4 stationed at Whidbey Island in Washington state. Patrol squadrons were once based at Kaneohe Bay but now deploy to Hawaii on a rotating basis.