Very droll, guys - love it.Returning to the original question, the 3 hours is easy to explain. It starts with the need for people to contact the AAIB (because it falls within the definition of accident or serious incident), who would then need to determine whether a field investigation was required and thus whether the evidence needed preserving in situ. And that would be done in order to make sure all the other King Airs weren't at risk of falling off the runway in the same way. You would in any case expect FDR and CVR data to be secured.The operator also has the right to expect that his aircraft will be recovered without further damage being done - you would not expect it to be bulldozed out of the way (a la US Navy) just to reopen the runway. I suspect the insurance underwriter would have an interest there too.So the 3 hours was actually quite quick, it could have been a lot worse. And the good news is that no-one was injured in the making of this thread...