Pilot Peter Miller, 32, and two medical attendants aboard the plane were killed.

"He was a good pilot," Hawaii Air Ambulance's chairman and former chief executive officer, Andrew Kluger, said Sunday. "He was trained. He was a pilot instructor and very capable."

Also killed in the crash were nurse Brien P. Eisaman, 37, of Waipahu, O'ahu, and paramedic Marlena Yomes, 39, of Wai'anae, O'ahu, who were on their way from O'ahu to pick up a patient.

The crash occurred before the plane could land at Kahului Airport.

Miller's words in a radio transmission to the Kahului Airport control tower just before the crash were: "Maui, I was in a right turn. We lost an engine. Ah, we need assistance.''

The National Transportation Safety Board report, released Monday, does not assign responsibility but reports on the condition of the plane and the background of its ownership, crew and ground crew.

The Hawaii Air Ambulance plane burned when it crashed into a BMW auto dealership lot on Hana Highway, and the report does not say which engine failed.

However, the left engine turbocharger showed more damage than other parts of either engine, and the right engine's throttle was wide open, which would match descriptions of the final moments by ground observers, who reported sounds of an engine at maximum effort.

According to the report, loss of the left engine on that model plane is more crippling, because of the way it destabilizes the aircraft. Once the speed of a Cessna 414 drops below 79 knots, it cannot stay airborne.

The plane had been going 134 knots when it began maneuvering for landing, but it was losing speed rapidly after the engine failed. After Miller made a third right turn, the speed dropped to 76 knots and the plane crashed.

The aircraft and engines were in good operating condition, according to the report, although they were "old and did not appear attractive."

No one on the ground was injured, but about 20 autos at the dealership were destroyed or damaged.

The pilot, Miller, was a certified flight instructor with a good record. He had been visiting family members the day of the crash, was well-rested and had gone surfing earlier. No evidence of drugs or alcohol was found in the bodies of the victims.

HAA did its own pilot training, and maneuvering at minimum airspeed was covered. However, practicing flying with one engine out was not done.

The chief pilot told investigators that on the Cessna, the minimum slow airspeed was below the airframe's stall speed, and there had been numerous accidents nationwide while attempting to fly the plane slowly on one engine, so aerial training was not attempted.

The ground training "did not specifically address Vmc (minimum controllable velocity) flight or the performance penalties associated with an unfeathered propeller, landing gear down or flaps deployed," the report says.

The propellers of the plane had not been feathered, and the controls, although burned in the fire, indicated that the landing gear was down and the flaps were deployed.

Miller had satisfactorily demonstrated a landing with one engine out to HAA's chief pilot on Nov. 11, 2005.

Miller had had an engine-out experience while working as an instructor on July 1, 2005, at Honolulu International Airport.

The NTSB report does not fully explain what happened, but while attempting a "go around" the landing gear was not fully down and locked. An NTSB report after that incident found that Miller as instructor had not followed established procedures for manually lowering the gear and failed to maintain minimum controllable airspeed.

Since the fatal crash, Kluger leases more modern planes and has hired new staff, including Joseph Hunt as president and chief executive officer.

The company has added training, including the use of new simulators, to increase safety measures, Kluger said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.