An 86-year-old Ohio man at the controls of a plane that crashed last year, killing him and five passengers, had been warned not to drive by his eye doctor, according to federal investigators.

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a report issued this week that Gene Damschroder Sr. had been in treatment for macular degeneration for two years. Yet, on the last airman medical certificate he filed, in 2007, he denied having any eye conditions, the NTSB said.

Damschroder, a former state representative, was giving airplane rides on June 8, 2008, at Fremont Airport in northwest Ohio when the crash occurred. Witnesses told the NTSB that the Cessna was flying at a low altitude when it banked, descended and slammed into a field.

The report said Damschroder had been involved in four traffic accidents between 1998 and 2008, the most recent on May 30, 2008, as he was turning into the airport. He told a state trooper at the time that the sun was glaring into his vehicle and he didn't see an oncoming vehicle until he was already making the left