NEW YORK -- The city's medical examiner said Tuesday that two- thirds of the 27 people who died in the crash of USAir Flight 405 drowned when the doomed jet skidded off a LaGuardia Airport runway on takeoff and plunged into Flushing Bay.
Twenty-four people survived the Fokker F-28's flaming crash late Sunday.
The last victim was not pulled from the submerged wreckage until Monday night, almost 21 hours after the crash. Tuesday afternoon, all the dead had been identified.
USAir Flight 405, which had arrived from Jacksonville, Fla., was on its way to Cleveland with 47 passengers and a crew of four aboard. Two crew members, the plane's pilot and a flight attendant, were killed.
Ellen Borakove, spokeswoman for the medical examiner's office, said 18 of the 27 fatalities died from drowning.
Two of those also suffered blunt impact injuries to the body and head that were 'a contributing factor to their death,' Borakove said.
Four others died from blunt impact injuries to the head and torso, four died from burns or smoke inhalation, and one diedfrom burns, smoke inhalation and blunt impact injuries, Borakove said.
Families of the victims were making arrangements with local funeral directors for the bodies of their loved ones to be flown home for burial, Borakove said.
Federal investigators beginning the painstaking task of piecing together the plane's charred wreckage to determine the cause of the crash were examining what factor wing icing played in the catastrophe.
The plane had sat on the runway for almost an hour waiting for clearance to takeoff. Authorities said de-icing solution had been applied to its wings twice as the snow swirled around it, the last time about 30 minutes before the attempted takeoff at 9:31 p.m.
Investigators also were interviewing survivors about the long wait for takeoff in the middle of a snowstorm and the seconds after the plane tried to lift off, then lurched to the left and exploded in flames in Flushing Bay.
Three years ago, a Fokker-28 crashed in Ontario, Canada, just after taking off in a snowstorm, killing 24. Ice on the wings was blamed for the crash.
Some passengers of Flight 405 have told authorities they saw a heavy ice buildup on the wings before takeoff.
Federal rules strictly prohibit a pilot from attempting to take off with snow or ice on the wings.
One of the survivors was actor Richard Lawson, who plays Lucas Barnes on the ABC soap opera 'All My Children.'
'I had these bad vibes ... and so I started to pay attention,' he said. 'I was carefully watching the de-icing truck.'
He said that the left side of the plane was never de-iced initially and the right side did not get de-iced a second time.
Lawson suffered only cuts and bruises and was released from the hospital Tuesday.
Robert Benzon, the lead investigator for the National Transpotation Safety Board, said 'roughly 80 to 85 percent' of the aircraft had been located in the water and stacked in a hanger.
Investigators also checked the scrape marks made on the runway, apparently by the left wing, before the crash, he said.
'We're not focusing on any particular area,' he said when asked about the de-icing question. 'The investigation is wide open.'
Authorities said that a preliminary check of cockpit and control tower tapes also suggested there was nothing out of the ordinary in the operation of the plane, which is designed for takeoff and landings on short runways.
The 'black box' recorder was flown to Washington where it was undergoing extensive checking. Dutch aircraft manufacturer N.V. Fokker also sent a team of experts to aid in the investigation.
