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Pilot Error Blamed In Fatal Livermore Plane Crash

LIVERMORE (CBS/AP) -- Federal investigators have blamed pilot error for a plane crash near Livermore last year that killed a Belmont couple.

The National Transportation Safety Board said 75-year-old Julia Huber continued to rely just on sight to fly on May 9, 2010 even when the weather became rainy and foggy and called for the use of cockpit instruments to guide the plane.

According to the NTSB's probable cause report, Huber did not have training in instrument-guided flying.

She and her husband, 77-year-old Oskar Huber, crashed in an area of relatively high terrain after she turned the plane, likely to get below the inclement weather.

The report was issued last month.

Friends and neighbors of the couple have said they were flying back to San Carlos Airport in their single-engine Piper Cherokee after visiting their son in Placer County on Mother's Day.

(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services may have contributed to this report.)

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