Airplane Crash Recovery Complete on Route 287

A day after the airplane crash on Route 287 that killed all five passengers and a dog, air safety investigators confirmed Wednesday that Pilot Jeffrey Buckalew's plane had been picking up some ice at about 18,000 feet prior to the fatal accident.

"How much? We may never know," said Ralph Hicks, a lead investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

 has lead to speculation that ice could have played a part in the accident. Investigators have said, however, that the investigation will not be finished for at least six to 12 months, and stressed it's far too early to come to any conclusions.

Crews completed recovery Wednesday along and in the highway of the pieces of the 2005 Socata TBM700 aircraft and Route 287 is again completely open. Once recovery is finished in the surrounding area, the pieces will be transported to Anglin Aircraft Recovery Center in Delaware for examination.

"There's a lot of information to go through," Hicks said. "The aircraft is very fragmented" and it might not be confirmed they have every piece of the plane until they piece together at the recovery center what has been recovered, he said.

Hicks said the most consistent information provided by eyewitnesses interviewed by investigators so far has been the description of "a descending spiral" by the plane as it crashed onto Route 287.

The investigator also said Wednesday that radio contact had been maintained between Buckalew and Air Traffic Control during the initial portion of the accident sequence, then was lost prior to the crash.

A preliminary report will be published in about a week on the NTSB.gov website.