San Francisco, Aug 15 (IANS): A plane that crashed last month in Glacier Bay National Park, US state of Alaska, was a few hundred feet below a high ridge when it struck the mountainside, killing three people aboard, according to an official preliminary report released by the US National Transportation Safety Board.

The 1948 Beechcraft Bonanza left Juneau, the capital city of Alaska, on July 20 for Yakutat, but crashed into the east side of Mount Crillon, one of the higher mountains of the coastal Fairweather Range, reports Xinhua news agency, citing the US National Transportation Safety Board.

The plane's tracking signal stopped at an altitude of about 10,875 feet (about 3,315 metres), 345 feet (about 105 metres) below the top of the ridge, according to the report, which also referenced a forecast warning of clouds obscuring mountaintops in the region.

An aerial search on August 5 revealed "portions of highly fragmented aeroplane wreckage" at about 6,200 feet (about 1,890 metres), more than 4,500 feet (about 1,372 metres) below the area where authorities believed the plane initially crashed, the report said.

The discovery of the plane came more than two weeks after the US Coast Guard suspended an extensive search for the plane.

Any information in the report is preliminary, said Clint Johnson, the NTSB's Alaska chief. A more comprehensive report, including any probable cause of the crash, is expected to be released next year.