The WardAir Aviation plane crashed at 9:24 p.m. on rising terrain at the 3,750-foot level of Haleakala, six minutes after taking off from Kahului Airport on its way to Kona, according to the report by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Pilot and plane owner Ward Mareels, 54, of Kailua, O'ahu, had spent much of the previous week in Kona providing air tours of the Kilauea volcano and day trips to Maui and Moloka'i to visitors on the Big Island for the Ironman Triathlon, the report said. The day of the crash, he had taken two passengers to Maui and was headed back to Kona that night to pick up two more passengers and fly them to Maui the following day.

According to witnesses, the weather was clear and dark, with no moon. One witness described seeing a "low flying airplane" at roughly 3,000 feet about 2 minutes before hearing an explosion, the NTSB report said.

The pilot had checked in with the Federal Aviation Administration control center in Honolulu moments after takeoff and was advised to fly at an altitude of his discretion, the report said. At 9:21 p.m., he radioed that he was leaving 3,000 feet. Three minutes later radio and radar contact were lost.

The Maui Fire Department located the wreckage at 10 p.m. The airplane came to rest on its belly 210 feet from the initial point of contact. The pilot's body was found 50 feet upslope of the crash site, the report said. A post-impact fire destroyed the airplane cockpit and cabin area.

It could take a year or longer for the NTSB to issue a final report on the probable cause of the crash.