Plane Crash Recovery to Resume Wednesday

All lanes of Route 287 have been re-opened as the recovery process for pieces of a single-engine aircraft that crashed on the highway Tuesday morning in Morris Township will resume in the morning, a representative for the National Transportation Safety Board said.

Robert Gretz, of the NTSB, said Tuesday night at a news briefing at the that the "recovery has gone a little slower than we expected" and was stopped due to darkness Tuesday night at about 6 p.m.

Gretz said the Socata TBM 700 aircraft was built in 2005 and destroyed Tuesday with a "high-energy impact." All five on board and a dog were killed.

While all lanes of the roadway have been cleared of debris and re-opened to traffic, 60 to 70 percent of the wreckage remains in the center median guarded by a state trooper, Gretz said.

Gretz said it was a "top priority" to document and move the wreckage off the lanes of the highway.

The recovery process will resume following rush-hour Wednesday morning at 9:30 a.m.

According to Gretz, 30 to 40 percent of the wreckage has already been loaded onto trucks and will be shipped to the Anglin Aircraft Recovery Center in Delaware for examination.

A large piece of the wreckage remains stuck in a nearby tree, according to Gretz, who said a tree company will be hired to recover the piece on Wednesday.

According to Gretz, the aircraft contained mounted and handheld GPS devices. The handheld device has been recovered and will be examined, Gretz said.

The investigation is expected to last 6 to 12 months. There are currently eight NTSB members, five of whom have been working on the scene, investigating the accident.