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EASTON - The Angel Flight that crashed earlier this month in the parking lot of a Route 106 shopping plaza killing three people aboard, including a cancer patient and his wife, was off course before it crashed, a preliminary report says.

The pilot lost control of the plane while trying to get on the right path to Logan International Airport in Boston before it crashed on Aug. 12 at Hannaford's supermarket plaza at routes 106 and 123 in South Easton, according to the National Transportation Safety Administration's report.

No one on the ground was injured.

The pilot, Joseph Baker of Brookfield, Conn., was a volunteer for the Angel Flight charity group, taking Robert Gregory of Riverhead, N.Y., a cancer patient, and his wife, Donna, from Long Island to Boston for a checkup at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Baker was given flight information to follow a radio beam to the runway at Logan but crossed the flight path without turning into it, NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson said Tuesday. "He flew through the course," Knudson said.

Baker was then given directions on how to get back on course, but the plane was also experiencing "altitude deviations," Knudson said.

The plane at one point descended from 4,000 feet to 1,200 feet, causing the Logan air traffic controller to issue a low altitude alert to the pilot, according to the report.

Baker acknowledged the controller when he ordered the pilot to "climb immediately," the report states.

Baker was advised to maintain an altitude of 3,000 feet and was last reported at 2,700 feet before descending again to 2,400 feet, prompting the air traffic controller to ask, "Your altitude is going up and down. Are (you) all right, sir?"

There was no response and there were no other transmissions from the plane before it crashed.

A pilot-rated witness in the area reported hearing a low-flying airplane heading west to east, and then saw it descending vertically out of the clouds.

The witness did not recall seeing landing gear on the plane, but did not see smoke trailing the airplane during the time he saw it.

The plane spun 2 1/2 times to the left, went out of sight behind trees and then crashed.

The witness added that the engine was running with a constant sound prior to impact, and that there was no missing or sputtering. Other witnesses reported seeing the plane climbing and then losing altitude, circling and then nose-diving into the parking lot.

Knudson said the NTSB will check the plane for any mechanical problems and to make sure its instruments were working properly.

Investigators will also try to determine whether Baker had any health problems before the crash, and will trace Baker's actions back three days to determine whether there was anything that would have affected the flight, Knudson said.

The final report on the plane crash could take up to a year to complete.