The flight recorders and wreckage of a Boeing 737-200 cargo plane that crashed in waters off Oahu in July have been successfully recovered, the National Transportation Safety Board announced today.

Recovery efforts began on Oct. 12 and took nearly three weeks to complete.

“The recovery of the recorders and virtually the entire airplane represents a major step forward in the investigation,” said NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy in a news release.

Two men piloting TransAir flight 810 ditched the aircraft in the water on July 2 after they reported “anomalies in both engines,” the federal agency said. The pilots ditched the plane in the water shortly after takeoff from the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Both pilots who were the only occupants on the plane survived.

The fuselage broke into two pieces: the aft section with the wings and tail attached and the forward section that contained the cockpit from the wreckage. Both engines also separated from the wings upon impact.

Crews recovered the wreckage from an ocean shelf at a depth of 350 to 450 feet approximately two miles off of Ewa Beach.

The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder will be taken to a laboratory in Washington to be analyzed.

NTSB said the investigation is expected to be completed in 12 to 24 months.