Investigators spent Saturday combing through the wreckage of a cargo plane that crashed early Friday in the Heights.

Crews worked through the day to pull out the remains of the 1900 Beechraft which crashed into a construction warehouse on Jerrie Lane.

The two largest pieces of the airplane recovered were the engines, which were mangled but recognizable. One engine was on top of the crater created when the plane hit the ground and the other was buried, said Kurt Anderson, investigator in charge of the National Transportation Safety Board probe into the crash.

Investigators and firefighters created a pile of smaller, but identifiable, pieces nearby. A recovery company that contracts with the NTSB will be in Billings today to put those parts in containers and take them to Gallatin Field in Belgrade where the investigation will continue, Anderson said.

“We’ll tear into them further out there,” he said.

The pilot, Kelly Lynch, 40, died in the wreck which happened just minutes after he took off from Billings Logan International Airport en route to Great Falls with a load of mail. Anderson said Billings detectives have not yet stopped their search for his remains and will continue digging through the wreckage today.

Leaders from Lynch’s employer, Alpine Aviation, and members of his family were escorted through the crash scene after investigators finished work on Saturday.

Investigators, including from the Federal Aviation Administration, worked with Alpine Aviation officials on Saturday. Alpine has numerous contracts with the U.S. Postal Service. Anderson said the FAA has the plane’s maintenance records and investigators are gathering Lynch’s FAA and Alpine records.

“We’re still in the process of gathering evidence and there is a lot of it,” he said.

While Anderson would not speculate on the cause of the crash, he said investigators haven’t seen any evidence that a major failure occurred.

“At this point, nothing has caused us to focus on one specific element or system of the airplane,” he said.

He said it would take a couple of days to determine if there was a malfunction. The investigation won’t be completed for six to eight months.

“This is just the very beginning,” Anderson said.

Reports that mail or parts of the plane were scattered as far away as Skyview High School were checked but not confirmed on Saturday, Anderson said.

“If there is some out there, we’d like to know about it,” he said.

Officials have asked people who find debris from the crash to call the dispatch center at 657-8200 and leave their name, address, and a daytime contact along with the locations of the debris.

Investigators have good radar and audio of the flight, which lasted just minutes, Anderson said.

An Internet site that posts radio traffic between air traffic controllers and pilots captured some of Lynch’s last communications as he took instructions for take off and the controller told him “have a great evenin’ see ya Kelly.”

Using the information and clues from the crash site, Anderson hopes to determine how high the Beechcraft was before it crashed and at what attitude the plane hit.

The crater created by the plane is about 4 feet deep, 40 feet long and 25 feet wide, by Anderson’s estimate. He said the plane hit the ground, then a pickup — which was sent about 60 feet to one side — and then into the cinder-block warehouse owned by C&S Construction Inc.

The aircraft was carrying more than two tons of mail, much of which was thrown across about a 150-by-50 yard area, Anderson said. Postal workers started gathering the mail on Saturday. There is a portion of the wreck area they have not yet been allowed into, Anderson said.

The mail was taken to the Postal Service building on South 27th Street where it is being laid out on tables and fans are set up to help dry it, said Sally Tuomi, USPS marketing manager in Billings. Drying will take several days, she said.

Mail that has readable addresses — either recipient or sender — will be sent to that person, Tuomi said. The Postal Service will also send a letter explaining why the letter’s condition is battered, she said.

“It is a long and tedious process,” Tuomi said. “We go through it all.”

People who believe they may have had mail on the plane are encouraged to contact the sender or recipient and explain there may be a delay, Tuomi said. She asked people to wait about a week to contact the Postal Service.

“I know everybody is anxious to know where their mail is, but we’ve got to have some time to get through it all,” she said.

NTSB agent in Billings for 2nd time in 16 years

In 20 years with the National Transportation Safety Board, investigator Kurt Anderson’s job has brought him to Billings twice.

He is in town this weekend investigating the crash of a 1900 Beechcraft in the Heights.

Anderson also investigated the crash of a Cessna Citation 500 on Dec. 18, 1992.

That crash killed six employees of the Western Area Power Administration and two pilots. The plane got caught in the wake of a larger plane and crashed into a School District 2 warehouse.

That investigation yielded recommendations for how the aircraft are maneuvered in the air and resulted in worldwide changes for pilots, Anderson said.