The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the maintenance and testing records of a business jet that crashed in mid-Michigan. 

The Mexico-registered Raytheon Hawker 800 XP jet went down Oct. 16 in a wooded area near the intersection of Clark and Peacock roads in Clinton Township. Three people who were aboard the plane when it crashed Oct. 16 in Bath Township died. They were later identified as Rodolfo Pimentel Zamora, Francisco del moral Jimenez and Alvaro Espejo Javier Rodriguez, all from Mexico.  

They were the primary crew assigned to the plane. 

The NTSB issued a preliminary report Thursday that said that stall testing was required on the aircraft after a maintenance inspection in Battle Creek found cracks and corrosion on a leading edge. 

The NTSB said the regularly assigned flight crew was unable to coordinate that procedure with a test pilot and decided to handle the post-maintenance stall test themselves. There are specific instructions for such a test regarding altitude, visibility and what to look for. 

During its last flight, the plane departed Battle Creek Executive Airport at Kellogg Field at 5:08 p.m. Then, at 5:27 p.m., the airplane began a rapid descent. Resulting conversations between the flight crew and air traffic control included "we are in a..." followed by a transmission in Spanish that translated to "in a stall, recovering, sorry."  

That was the last report from the crew to air traffic control. 

The plane caught fire after it crashed. 

The cockpit voice recorder has been recovered and is still in testing, the NTSB said. 

The NTSB said it has investigated at least three other business jet accidents where the preceding circumstances included required stall tests after maintenance work was completed. 

Crews from the Federal Aviation Administration and NTSB were assigned to the investigation, despite it happening during the federal government shutdown. Bath Township supervisor Ryan Fewins-Bliss said the federal employees assigned to the crash were among those who were not paid during the shutdown weeks. 

The above video originally aired Oct. 20.