The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the crash was caused by the pilot in command (PIC) allowing the aircraft to be loaded beyond its operating limitations. The required pre-flight weight and balance computations responsibility of civilian pilots would have shown it was dangerously overloaded and also outside its weight and balance operating envelope. This responsibility with military pilots is the responsibility of the military loadmaster, and thus he may have, by force of habit, overlooked this responsibility. Don Alan Burmeister was a former United States Marine Corps aviator, but FAA records show he had very limited experience / training in flying conventional (vs. centerline thrust) twin engine aircraft. Records show it was only a short time prior to the accident (6/9/82) that he completed a check-ride to remove the "centerline thrust" restriction from his pilot's certificate. This check-ride should have fully evaluated his ability to fly a conventional multi-engine aircraft throughout its designed range of operations, but the flight examiner was decertified the next month (7/10/82) by the FAA due to a "history of incomplete or substandard check-rides". Additionally, the insurance carrier (Ideal Mutual Insurance Co.) required Burmeister to log 1,045 hrs of flying time, attend a Cessna ground and flight training course, as well as log 15 hours in a Cessna 414 (C-414) prior to acting as the PIC of the leased aircraft. The NTSB record shows he failed to accomplish all of these requirements. With pilot and eleven passengers, the aircraft was overloaded by an estimated , and the location of the center of gravity was found to be beyond the maximum aft limit. Combined with an air temperature of , creating a condition known as "hot and high" (high density altitude, producing a lower climb rate on takeoff and greater danger of stalling), the C-414 could do little but struggle into the air within ground effect, and once airborne was left virtually uncontrollable. These factors prevented the aircraft from ever attaining sufficient altitude, and it crashed into trees less than a mile from the airport.