The aircraft crashed into a remote area of marshland on Jamaica Bay used as a wildlife sanctuary. Upwards of 300 policemen and fire fighters, including 125 detectives attending a narcotics seminar at the police academy, as well as Coast Guard helicopters, were mobilized to the crash site within half an hour of the crash for rescue operations, only to find no survivors. The three-alarm fire was under control by 10:50 am, when only wreckage remained. Low tides aided search personnel in their attempts to recover bodies from the downed aircraft. Only a few bodies remained intact.