A new federal report says that flying conditions were poor and visibility low before a crash that killed an Amazon.com executive and his pilot on the way to northern Michigan's Mackinac Island.

The National Transportation Safety Board reported Thursday on the Dec. 3, 2011, crash of a single-engine charter plane crash. The accident killed 29-year-old pilot Joseph Pann Jr. of St. Ignace and 52-year-old Thomas Phillips, who had homes in Kirkland, Wash., and Mackinac Island.

The plane left St. Ignace for a 4.5-mile flight to the resort island. It crashed near Lake Huron in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Pann worked for Great Lakes Air. The Detroit News ( http://bit.ly/14KDfzD) says another pilot told Pann that morning that weather was cancelling the flight but later said conditions had improved enough to attempt it.