The National Transportation Safety Board released its initial findings on the night a single engine Cessna went down in West Central Fresno, killing two people.
Seasoned aviator, Doug Betts, vice president of the Central Valley Aviation Association, examined the report.
"I get the impressions that this pilot was using some conservative techniques," Betts said, noting that the pilot used flight following, a safety measure that isn't required, where air traffic control monitors a plane's path through radar data.
Eight-year-old Finn Thompson, who was a third grade at Bullard TALENT school, died in the crash. His great uncle, 72-year-old Tim Farmer of Tehachapi, who was piloting the plane, also died.
Finn's mother, Lisa, said he was fond of aviation and wanted to be an astronaut when he grew up.
According to the initial findings of the NTSB report, the plane made a hard landing on the runway, then took off. But this isn't unusual, Betts said.
"Now at this point, if he felt that the controllability was at risk at all, we are trained to power up and go around."
The pilot then headed toward another runway, at about 15 feet above ground, instead of re-entering the normal traffic pattern.
"That is very unusual and perhaps a clue, perhaps telling us that there was something going on with the runway environment that he's wanting to look at," Betts said.
From there, the pilot climbed about 100 feet and made a series of turns.
The left wing clipped a large pecan tree in the backyard of a house south of the airport.
"I was sitting right here actually, in this chair up here. And I had already been looking out that way, and I saw an airplane coming down making an unusual turn right here. And I knew something was wrong. Knew he was in trouble," said Joe Luna, who was sitting outside the house where the plane clipped a tree in the backyard.
From there, the plane continued and finally nosedived into the front yard of a home right outside Chandler Executive Airport.
The NTSB will continue to investigate. They'll look into the pilot's experience, what kind of certifications he had, and what kind of circumstances he was dealing with that may have affected him that day. The complete report will take anywhere from six months to one year.
A copy of the preliminary report can be found here: http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/brief.aspx?ev_id=20131226X23756&key=1