It's seems the single-engine plane that crashed near Sanborn, Iowa a few months ago may have run out of gas.

It almost seems too simple of a thing to cause such a tragic event, but aviation officials think an empty tank may be to blame for the loss of three lives.

The Piper 28 passenger plane took off from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin on June 23rd shortly after 8 a.m.

Only three hours later it crashed into a northwest Iowa corn field.

The National Transportation Safety Board has now released it's final accident report.

Witnesses at that airport overheard the group of three men, headed for a hunting trip in South Dakota, say they planned to stop and refuel along the way.

Right before the plane crashed outside of Sanborn, witnesses saw it flying low and heard the engine "coughing and sputtering".

Investigators on the scene found merely three-and-a-half cups of fuel in the fuel tanks of the wreckage, and first responders reported no smell of fuel at the crash site.

Autopsies reveal the three Wisconsin men, 64-year-old Francis Allegretti, 60-year-old Thomas Boos, and 65-year-old Malcolm McMillan, died of blunt force trauma.

The plane crashed three miles away from the runway at the Sheldon Municipal Airport.