No plane faults found in NSW crash probe

Investigators probing a fatal crash involving a financially-troubled flight school will examine maintenance history and the experience of those on board.

A student pilot and her instructor were killed when their two-seat light aircraft slammed into a small dam in central NSW on November 4, 2020.

The flight was a final check before the Soar Aviation student underwent a commercial pilot licence test later that month.

A crash investigation update released on Tuesday said the engine had fuel supply at the time of the crash at Carcoar, south of Orange.

Weather reports also indicated no cloud, good visibility and light winds.

"On-site examination of the aircraft's flight controls, engine and structure did not identify any pre-existing faults or failures," the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's Kerri Hughes said in a statement.

Ms Hughes said the ATSB would now analyse the pilot's personal electronic devices, the aircraft's maintenance history, weight and balance, and performance.

Planning for the flight and the pilots' qualifications, experience and medical information will also be examined before the final report, expected in late 2021.

Soar Aviation, which entered administration on December 29, no longer has a working phone number listed on its website.

Comment was sought via email and via its administrators, who held a creditors meeting this week.

The ATSB's initial investigations had uncovered that the crashed aircraft was flying in a pattern consistent with a touch-and-go at a landing area near Carcoar before it crashed.

It had earlier departed Bankstown Airport and landed at Orange, where a witness saw the instructor consulting flight charts.

Two orbits of the airstrip near Carcoar were completed before the crash.

No eyewitnesses saw the aircraft but a witness heard sounds consistent with it approaching and then leaving the area.

Less than 10 seconds later, the witness heard the plane hit the bank of the small dam, which was on rising terrain about 600 metres beyond the runway.