LOS ANGELES — A preliminary federal report says the pilot whose plane broke up and crashed into a Southern California home was warned before takeoff that he was heading into bad weather.
The two-page National Transportation Safety Board report released Thursday doesn't explain why the Cessna came apart mid-flight on the afternoon of Feb. 3. Investigations into the cause of a crash typically take months.
Pilot Antonio Pastini died along with four people on the ground when the wreckage struck and burned a house in suburban Yorba Linda, south of Los Angeles.
The NTSB says Fullerton Municipal Airport officials informed pilots that developing rain required the switch from navigation by sight to navigation by instruments. The report doesn't say if Pastini went to instrument navigation.
The crash happened just minutes after takeoff.