New details have been released in this month's small plane crash in Centre County that killed a Butler native and her pilot husband.

The information is contained in the National Transportation Safety Board's recently released preliminary report. A cause is still pending.

Valerie D. Bernardo, 54, and Joseph T. Bernardo, 55, both of State College, died when their single-engine plane went down May 1 into the side of Sandy Ridge Mountain in Rush Township.

Valerie Bernardo was born in Butler and her mother lives in Chicora.

The report confirmed that the couple was flying to the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport in Penn Township.

It also disclosed that moments before the accident, the plane was apparently flying low possibly due to the dense fog.

The fixed-wing plane, owned by a State College-based flying club, crashed just minutes after takeoff from University Park Airport.

Joseph Bernardo, a member of the flying club, had filed an instrument flight rules plan; however, he eventually opted to make the trip under visual flight rules, according to the report.

He was cleared for takeoff and given an altimeter setting but, the report said, there were no subsequent communications.

A review of radar tracking data determined that the aircraft climbed 2,500 feet above sea level before turning slightly right heading west-southwest, then descended to about 2,000 feet. The plane turned to the same heading as when it took off.

“The radar data indicated that the airplane began a right turn,” the report said, “before radar track data was lost.”

The last reading showed the plane was about 2,050 feet above sea level, about 0.11 miles southeast of the crash site.

A witness, a woman who was one-half mile from the site, described the weather as being “very foggy, but not raining.”

Investigators said the visibility was seven miles with an overcast cloud ceiling, and the wind speed was about 7 mph.

The witness recounted that she heard a “loud sounding airplane,” which got her attention. The plane was westbound and she described it as flying low, “straight” below the fog and “way above a nearby 45-foot-tall tree.”

The aircraft banked to the right, she recalled, before she lost sight of it behind trees.

“She then heard the sound of an explosion and called 911 to report the accident,” the report said.

The plane struck wooded terrain near the top of a ridgeline about 2,275 feet above sea level and about 17 miles west-southwest of University Park Airport.

The wreckage was ”highly fragmented and partially consumed by a postcrash fire,” the report said.

The NTSB investigation continues. Officials said it could take between 12 and 18 months before a final report on the accident is issued. That report is expected to determine what caused the crash.