A week after a Navy P-8A slid into Kaneohe Bay while trying to land in rainy weather, the Navy rear admiral in charge of extracting the plane said all of the more than 2,000 gallons of fuel on board had been safely removed, while apologizing for not better updating the public and media.

Rear Adm. Kevin P. Lenox — on-scene commander and commander of Carrier Strike Group 3 out of Bremerton, Wash. — said the P-8A appears undamaged and has been anchored to the lone base runway about 100 feet off Marine Corps Base Hawaii to restrict if from shifting in the bay.

“The aircraft’s in remarkable condition and has full integrity,” Lenox said Monday at Marine Corps Base Hawaii at the first news conference since the Nov. 20 mishap.

But its left engine and left front landing gear sit atop coral reef on the mauka side of the base in water that varies from 5 to 25 feet deep.

Testing of the plane’s fuel Monday indicated that no sea water leaked into the fuel system and that the fuel is so pristine that it can be reused, Lenox said.

“It was basically perfect fuel,” he said.

Lenox offered no timetable for when the P-8A out of Whidbey Island, Wash., might be extracted — an operation that has caused a shutdown of fixed-wing flights in and out of the base out of concerns that “exhaust blasts” during takeoffs and landings could move the plane, possibly disrupting its stability, said base commander Marine Col. Jeremy Beaven.

Beaven flew in EA-6B Prowler planes and said he’s considering flying some fixed-wing planes off the base to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam at some point — but rotary wing and tiltrotor aircraft continue to fly out of Kaneohe because their operations pose little risk to the P-8A’s stability.

Despite immediate pleas Nov. 20 from elected state and federal officials to provide updates to the public, Lenox apologized Monday and promised to be more transparent.

“We need to do better in communications,” he said.

Until Monday, media updates have pingponged between the Navy’s Third Fleet in San Diego and Honolulu­-based Pacific Fleet. Monday’s news conference represented the first public comments directly from high-ranking Navy and Marine officers on Oahu.

Environmentalists and elected officials are watching the Navy and Marines closely over their handling of the downed P-8A following years of lack of candor about a series of fuel spills at the Navy’s Red Hill fuel storage facility that contaminated Oahu’s underground supply of drinking water.

Lenox acknowledged “areas of mistrust over Red Hill.”

On the Windward side, environmentalists and elected officials immediately began expressing concern about the P-8A’s effect on the bay, a site of rich cultural, environmental and marine life importance which serves as a source of food for uncounted families.

No plan or timetable have been determined about how and when to get the P-8A onto the base runway.

But two ideas are under consideration, Lenox said.

One would float the plane high enough to enable a crane to haul it ashore. Another would use inflatable bags en route from Louisiana this week to get the plane high enough out of Kaneohe Bay and back on land.

However the plane gets out of the bay, Lenox emphasized the need “to execute it right the first time.”

Before the plane slid off the runway on Nov. 20, a boom already was in place around the runway to prevent spills from contaminating the bay and its wildlife.

Lenox tried to reassure the public that “those hazardous contaminants (from the downed plane) have been contained.”

Beaven stressed the immediacy of the military’s response, including getting a second boom completely installed around the P-8A within 30 minutes. A third boom also has since been applied.

The base’s emergency operations center was immediately activated, which included state and federal representatives, Beaven said.

Navy divers out of Pearl Harbor then practiced offloading fuel from land-based P-8A aircraft before trying it on the water for the first time in Navy history.

The fuel from the P-8A was loaded onto two fuel trucks Sunday, Lenox said.

The Navy uses P-8A Poseidons assigned to the “Skinny Dragons” Patrol Squadron 4 out of Washington for multiple missions including submarine warfare, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

The plane and its crew of three pilots and six crew members that ended up in Kaneohe Bay was inbound as part of homeland defense but was not outfitted with cruise missiles or torpedoes.

It has since been replaced by a different crew and P-8A that landed at Hickam, Beaven said.

Meanwhile, an “off-the-­record” safety investigation has begun to prevent a repeat of how the P-8A missed the runway, Lenox said.

And then a separate investigation will begin — with potential disciplinary and legal ramifications — into how the P-8A crew missed their landing.

The second investigation cannot include any details of what the safety investigation uncovered, Lenox said.