By The Associated Press Sam Friedman, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner AP

7:41 a.m. AKDT, August 16, 2012
FAIRBANKS, Alaska—
A preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board says an Australian pilot who fatally crashed last month north of Fairbanks was in flight conditions above his qualification.
   
Sixty-four-year-old pilot Stephen Knight and his wife, 60-year-old Gillian Knight, died July 18 about 43 miles north of Fairbanks.
   
NTSB air safety investigator Chris Shaver says in the report that the Knights left Fort Yukon using visual flight rules.
   
The report says Stephen Knight just after 4:30 p.m. asked an air traffic controller in Anchorage for instrument clearance to Fairbanks even though he was not rated for instrument flying.
   
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://bit.ly/NlNGCs) reports the air traffic controller told Knight to climb to 7,000 feet but lost radio and radar contact with the rented six-seat Piper Saratoga five minutes later.