About a dozen people dragged plane wreckage down a muddy slope on a fog-laden mountain Tuesday - making for a gloomy conclusion to an already sad story.

Members of Atlanta Air Recovery arrived atop Old Fort Mountain Tuesday morning to inspect the site of a plane crash and assess how to remove the tangled debris from its resting place in a densely wooded area.

They spent hours dismantling the twisted metal with chain saws as about 10 local rescue and fire service volunteers hauled the pieces down from Kitsuma Peak, just one-tenth of a mile off Interstate 40.

Shortly before 3 p.m., "Godzilla," a piece of heavy machinery, brought out the last pieces of the Cessna Cardinal that crashed Friday afternoon. The pilot, 63-year-old James Davis of Long Island, N.Y., his wife, 59-year-old Francie Davis, and their daughter, 32-year-old Amanda Davis, died instantly at the scene of the crash.

The three were on a book tour for Amanda Davis' first novel, "Wonder When You'll Miss Me." She was at Malaprop's bookstore in Asheville for a book signing on Thursday.

The plane lifted off from the Asheville Regional Airport Friday afternoon bound for Rowan County. James Davis, who was licensed to fly only in clear weather, was scheduled to take a flying lesson there. The aircraft was last seen in overcast conditions eight miles north of Asheville.

The last known contact with the occupants was at 12:30 p.m. Friday when James Davis called his flight instructor, Guy Maher, and told him he was taxiing down the runway in Asheville and would be in Rowan County in an hour, according to Emergency Services Director Carroll Hemphill.

Local emergency officials got word of a possible downed plane early Saturday morning and began a search. A McDowell pilot located the crash site from his private plane at 8 a.m. The wreckage was found at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, and the bodies were removed around 3:45 p.m.

Cathy Gagne, an air safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, said it will take another six months to a year to determine the cause of the crash.

"We've completed our on-scene investigation, but we are still collecting data," she stated. "Determining a cause is a lengthy, fact-gathering process."

The plane wreckage was taken to a secure facility in Atlanta, where officials can further examine it during their investigation, according to Gagne.