INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — A student pilot who died in a small plane crash in early March failed to secure her instructor's endorsement for the flight, according to a preliminary report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Yujia Qu, 24, was killed March 5 when her Piper PA-28 Cherokee went down in a wooded area east of Interstate 95, near Vero Lake Estates.

Qu had secured her flight instructor's endorsement for a solo cross-country flight from the Vero Beach Regional Airport scheduled for March 4, the day before the crash, according to the report.

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The flight was canceled due to weather and rescheduled for the following morning, but Qu failed to obtain the endorsement for the rescheduled flight before taking off at 6:57 a.m., investigators said.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires student pilots obtain instructor endorsement before each solo cross-country flight.

The plane went down six minutes after takeoff, striking a tree before careening into heavy woods and brush about seven miles northwest of the airport, they said.

Authorities said at the time the Air Force had reported about 11:30 a.m. it had lost contact with the plane.

The instructor told investigators Qu knew she needed the endorsement before she could be released for the flight.

Qu was a student pilot at FlightSafety Academy, a flight training school based at the Vero Beach airport. She had logged about 96 hours of flying time, the report said.

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It was her second solo cross-country flight, bound for Palm Beach County Glades Airport in Pahokee.

The report did not address the cause of the crash, which remained under investigation.

Weather reports indicated a light rain and broken, overcast clouds the morning of the crash.

Eric Rogers is a breaking news reporter for TCPalm and FLORIDA TODAY.

Contact Rogers at 772-978-2224 or eric.rogers@tcpalm.com. Follow him on Twitter @EricRogersFT.

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