A plane that crashed near Madras in March, killing an Idaho couple, spiraled out of control from more than 13,000 feet and into power lines, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board.

David and Venita Hagerty, of Caldwell, Idaho, left Aurora, Oregon, at 2:05 p.m. on March 10, in their plane, a Piper PA-32, the safety board said. They were headed home, the report said.

About an hour into their flight, at 3:02 p.m., the plane had reached an altitude of 13,300 feet, the report said. The last automatically recorded data was at 3:03 p.m. The plane had plummeted to an altitude of 4,700 feet in less than a minute, and it was less than a quarter of a mile away from where it would crash, the report said.

Two people, who were roughly 3 miles northwest of the crash site, saw the plane spiral downward.

“One of the witnesses noted that the airplane was intact at the time,” the report said. “Another witness reported there were rain showers in the area when they heard the loud engine noise of the airplane.”

The plane struck a static power line about 5½ miles southeast of Madras, and hit the ground between two power-line towers. The power lines are owned by Bonneville Power Administration, which detected a power line surge at the same time as the crash. The power company sent a crew to investigate, the report said.

At 7:40 p.m., the crew found the wreckage, including debris scattered 300 feet, the report said. The wreckage was removed and taken to a facility for examination, a transportation official previously told The Bulletin.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.