NEWRY – Pilot error was the likely cause of a plane crash that killed three Lewiston High School students in June 2006, according to a federal report issued last week.

The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the pilot of the Cessna failed to maintain altitude and clearance before crashing into Barker Mountain June 22, killing everyone aboard.

The probable cause findings put an end to a year’s worth of investigation. Earlier this summer, the NTSB released findings revealing that pilot William “Charlie” Weir was known for flying erratically in training flights carrying LHS Air Force ROTC cadets.

Those findings were emphasized in the most recent summation of the wreck. It was the first time investigators have blamed the wreck directly on the pilot.

According to the report: “The flight instructor had a history of flying low and performing maneuvers bordering on excessive with cadets onboard.”

The NTSB had already concluded that no component of the aircraft body or engine had malfunctioned before the Cessna 172N crashed into Barker Mountain.

Killed in the crash along with Weir were Lewiston High School students Nicholas Babcock, 17, Teisha Loesberg, 16, and Shannon Fortier, 15. Each of the teens was being provided flight instruction as part of a summer camp program run by the school’s Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

Weir was working for Twin Cities Air Service in Auburn and providing lessons to the Civil Air Patrol cadets when he crashed. According to the NTSB report, another teenager who had flown with Weir earlier in the day and on previous occasions told investigators the pilot had a history of showing off behind the controls of an airplane.

Other cadets who had flown with Weir earlier on the day of the crash told federal investigators that the pilot flew his plane barefoot as he buzzed them over trails and logging roads before circling the Sunday River Ski Resort where he encountered difficulties.

Interviews with surviving cadets also revealed to investigators that Weir had encountered flight problems earlier in the day, in a flight preceding the one that resulted in the wreck on Barker Mountain.

According to the report, the 1979 Cessna 172N had its wing flaps down 10 degrees and its throttle full open at the time of the crash. The Cessna’s engine was still running and the propeller spinning when it crashed through trees into the mountainside at 2,070 feet elevation. The report also stated that the plane’s cabin was gutted by fire, and, that the crash was so sudden that no one unlocked the cabin doors.

Since the crash, new rules have been issued by the Air Force Junior ROTC headquarters in Maxwell, Ala. Most of them deal with a ban on aerobatic maneuvers by the pilots. One change is the prohibition during the first orientation flight of a stall, a situation in which a plane climbs too steeply.