The interim report into the plane crash that killed seven people on the Iles de la Madeleine in late March, including Jean Lapierre, shows the plane was making a steep, fast descent while under autopilot.
According to the Transportation Safety Board the plane's onboard recorders show the autopilot was used for most of the flight, and that pilot Pascal Gosselin began his descent at 12:17 p.m.
Air traffic controllers in Moncton gave Gosselin permission to land while using his instruments -- telling him not to rely on what he could see since visibility was poor.
Heavy cloud blanketed the island, with a ceiling of between 200 and 400 feet.
The data shows the plane was making a steep descent, and was travelling quickly, while under the control of the autopilot.
"The aircraft was fast, and it was quite higher than you would normally expect it to be," said Mike Cunningham of the TSB.
When the plane was 13 nautical miles from the airport it was travelling at 240 knots and was almost 7000 feet in the air.
The standard is for that type of plane to be travelling at just 150 knots and be 4000 feet in the air at that point.
That steep and fast descent continued with the plane continuing to dive at 1500 to 1800 feet per minute -- much steeper than the recommended rate of 500 feet per minute.
With three nautical miles to go until reaching the airport the plane was still more than 1000 feet in the air and travelling at more than 175 knots -- when it should have been under 150 knots and about 1000 feet up.
At this point the landing gear deployed and the autopilot was turned off, and which point it appears the pilot immediately lost control.
The report shows there were no mechanical problems with the plane's engines or any of the standard equipment.
Pilot was qualified
Records show that pilot Pascal Gosselin had 140 hours experience flying the MU-2, with about 2500 hours in the air. He also had the specific training required to fly the MU-2, a plane that had a spotty safety record in North America until extra training was required in 2008.
Fabrice Labourel was sitting in the co-pilot seat but although he was a commercial pilot and flight instructor, he was not certified on the MU-2.
For the next phase of its investigation the TSB will look more closely at the weather conditions to see if they had an effect on the plane.
The forecast called for a chance of icing while in clouds, and the cloud level was very low at between 200 and 400 feet above the ground.
The federal agency will also look at Gosselin's flight record and the training courses he took.
The Mitsubishi MU-2 plane had taken off from Montreal on Tuesday March 29, with the pilot, co-pilot, and five members of the Lapierre family.
Jean Lapierre, his wife Nicole Beaulieu, his two brothers Marc and Louis and his sister Martine, along with Pilot Pascal Gosselin and co-pilot Fabrice Labourel, all died as a result of the crash.
