The wreckage of an aircraft that crashed in mountains above the lower Flathead River drainage last week was scheduled to be hauled out by helicopter starting Tuesday, according to the lead investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Speaking from his Los Angeles office on Tuesday, Van McKenny said an initial investigation was carried out at the crash site on July 3, two days after the wreckage was discovered with all four people on board deceased.

The 1968 Piper Arrow was carrying two Inter Lake reporters — Melissa Weaver, 23, and Erika Hoefer, 27 — along with two Missoula men, Brian Williams, 28, and pilot Sonny Kless, 25.

The group left Kalispell City Airport on June 27 with plans to go on a scenic flight but did not return. A search was launched the next day and the wreckage was found three days later in mountainous terrain about 10 miles southwest of Dixon.

“It was a hard-to-reach location so we did an on-scene investigation on Friday, an initial examination, and we will be doing a follow-up examination on the engine at a later date,” McKenny said.

Recovering the wreckage will involve breaking it into sections that will be packaged and removed by a contract helicopter, he said.

McKenny offered a few comments on his observations at the crash site: “The wreckage was on a hillside in a heavily wooded area. The entire aircraft was located at the site, meaning that we don’t have a debris path. All parts of the airplane were right there ... There was a post-accident fire that consumed the cockpit and cabin area.”

McKenny added that it appeared the plane impacted “fairly flat and level.”

He said the federal safety agency will release a preliminary report in the next few days, and that a “factual report” will be released within 270 days, followed by a final report within a year that will include the probable cause of the crash.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com.