Within 10 days an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board should have a preliminary report on the tour helicopter that crashed in Pearl Harbor on Thursday morning, but what caused the accident will not be pinpointed for another year to 18 months.

The investigator from Washington state arrived midday Friday and will examine wreckage for “any evidence to give us possibly any idea as to what may have occurred,” NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said from Washington, D.C. “A preliminary report won’t provide a cause; it will just be factual information. It usually takes 12 to 18 months when a cause will be determined.”

The Navy said the investigation will take place at a hangar at Honolulu Airport operated by the tour company, Genesis Helicopters, which has not commented since its helicopter, known as a Jet Ranger, pancaked into about 10 feet of water and flipped over, just yards from the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center’s “Contemplation Circle.”

All five people onboard were injured.

Shuttles to the USS Arizona Memorial were halted Friday as two local companies hauled the wreckage of the Bell 206B tour helicopter out of Pearl Harbor and onto the Navy’s “Hotel 6 Pier,” situated about 200 yards from the crash site.

The National Park Service said Friday full operations will resume today.

On Friday tourists were still able to visit the shoreside Arizona Memorial Visitor Center’s grounds, museums, snack shop and bookstore, as well as the adjacent Battleship Missouri, USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Pacific Aviation Museum.

Two scuba divers from Pacific Diving Industries in Mapunapuna attached two yellow lift bags to the wreckage and had the helicopter hovering above the harbor floor within half an hour.

A boat then towed the wreckage — while it was still underwater — to the pier, where it was lifted by a crane operated by Advanced Towing and Recovery.

The entire operation took just more than an hour.

“The rotor’s attached and it’s all still there,” said Ray Tougas, CEO of Pacific Diving Industries. “We had a plan and the plan worked, and she cooperated.”

The helicopter weighs about a ton, Tougas said, but the lift bags are each capable of hauling a weight of 2 tons.

“We had a 200 percent safety factor,” Tougas said.

In the aftermath of the helicopter crash, which occurred at about 10:30 a.m. Thursday, the Navy encircled the site with an oil-absorbing white boom to capture any leaking fluids.

When the Pacific Diving Industries divers emerged Friday about 1:30 p.m., “they were smelling fuel as they turned it (the helicopter),” Tougas said. “There was probably a little leakage when they came up.”

Navy environmental specialists were monitoring the situation Friday, said Navy spokesman Bill Doughty.

The five people aboard the Bell 206B included the pilot and a family of four from Canada.

Pali Momi Medical Center was treating three of the victims. The most seriously injured was a 15-year-old boy, who remained in critical condition Friday. A 50-year-old man and 45-year-old woman were both in stable condition. The fourth family member was treated and released from a different hospital. A fifth person was taken to Tripler Army Medical Center.

“The family is declining to do any media,” Pali Momi spokeswoman Kristen Bonilla said.

The Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, which often helps tourists involved in harrowing experiences, has been in contact with the family, said the organization’s president and executive director, Jessica Lani Rich.

“They were obviously traumatized,” Rich said. “I talked to the mother to see how they were doing, and we offered our assistance, should they need us to do anything.”

An 11-second cellphone video taken by a tourist from Madison, Wis., shows the helicopter heading toward the center’s “Contemplation Circle” at an altitude of about 50 feet before suddenly slamming into the water and rolling onto its right side, with its rotors still spinning.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday said its databases showed no previous accidents, incidents or closed enforcement actions for the helicopter company and its owner, Jeffrey Gebhard of Kailua.

The helicopter was built in 1979 and owned by Gebhard, according to FAA records.

The tour company features the Hawaii News Now helicopter on its website, which also includes a prominent photo of Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona Memorial and the nearby USS Missouri.

The company advertises “Doors Off” helicopter tours.