(CNN) -- Trailing what would become a fatal flight by some 27 minutes, the same kind of aircraft operated by the same airline traveled the same route last week and landed safely, the NTSB said Monday.
Only a few pieces of the Continental Connection Dash 8 turboprop were recognizable after the crash.
The pilot of the second Continental Connection flight from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, reported "moderate icing" during the trip and "made it to destination in Buffalo," said Steve Chealander of the National Transportation Safety Board.
The second plane was a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400, like the plane that crashed Thursday night near the Buffalo airport, killing 49 people on board and one person on the ground. Also like the fatal flight, the aircraft was operated on the Continental Connection route by Colgan Air, Chealander said.
Possible icing -- and how the aircraft and the flight crew performed if icing was an issue -- has become a focus in the aftermath of the crash of Flight 3407. The pilot and first officer of the flight discussed "significant" ice buildup on the aircraft's windshield and wings before the crash, the NTSB said after listening to the cockpit voice recorder.
Chealander said Monday that he had been asked about possible icing on the aircraft's tail.
"If there's icing on the wings, there's icing on the tail," he said. "The significance of that is yet to be determined."
The flight data recorder indicated the plane's deicing system was activated 11 minutes after takeoff from Newark and remained on until the crash, according to the NTSB. Chealander said investigators have recovered most of the pieces of that system and will examine those materials to determine whether the system was operating properly.
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