The pilot of a small plane that crashed off a Butler County Airport runway last year knew the aircraft's wing flaps were broken but kept flying anyway, according to a National Transportation Safety Board report released Monday.

Pilot Patrick Kohout of Central, S.C., also had reason to believe the plane's brakes were not working properly.

The disabled flaps and problem brakes, along with a tricky tailwind, caused the twin-engine Cessna 141 to overshoot the runway June 17, 2005, ending in a belly-landing on Three Degree Road.

The plane stopped just short of slamming into the side of the Penn Township fire station. No one in the plane or on the ground was hurt.

The findings were part of a final report filed by NTSB investigators. The report cited "the pilot's decision to conduct the flight with a known equipment deficiency" as the primary probable cause of the crash.

Kohout declined comment about the crash when contacted at his home Tuesday.

Two couples were aboard the aircraft that had taken off from Greenville, S.C., and was landing at the county airport to drop off Kohout's wife, who was coming here to attend a wedding.

Kohout planned to refuel before continuing the flight to Vermont, where the other couple was headed.

The plane touched down safely at the Penn Township airport, according to a witness, but did not seem to slow down.

It traveled the entire 3,600 feet of the runway before plunging down a hill and into a chain-link fence. The plane ended just 50 feet from the brick side of the fire station.

The crash sparked a small fire in the plane that was quickly put out by Penn Township firefighters.

The pilot told investigators that he landed the plane with the wing flaps in the retracted position "because they were inoperative," the report said.

Kohout admitted he knew the flaps had not been working since June 8 — nine days before the ill-fated crash.

Flaps are deployed while making landings. They allow a plane to make a steep descent just before landing without picking up significant airspeed, and improve control of the plane.

The flaps permit slower landing speeds and act as air brakes when the plane is rolling to a stop after landing, and therefore reduce the need for excessive braking action.

But Kohout also knew before the flight that the plane's brakes were also not up to par, the NTSB report found.

He told investigators that another pilot using the plane on a prior flight "had advised him that the brakes felt 'spongy,'" the report said.

Kohout learned the same phenomenon first-hand as he brought the plane in for the landing at the county airport.

"The pilot began to 'work in the brakes,' but then realized that the desired braking action was not being achieved," the report said. "He then began to 'pump the brakes' which improved braking, but not significantly."

At one point Kohout "stood on the brakes" but the plane wouldn't stop.

An examination of the plane after the crash found drastically reduced pressure in the right brake, the report said.

The plane underwent its annual inspection on March 10. Since that time, the report noted, the aircraft had accrued 85 hours of flight time.

The Federal Aviation Administration, responsible for enforcement action in plane crashes, had no record of any citations issued against Kohout as of Tuesday, FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said.

The pilot, according to the NTSB report, had 2,233 hours of flight experience at the time of the crash.