A 21-year-old aircraft pilot died Monday after a small plane crashed in a field near Westerly State Airport in Westerly, Rhode Island. Police on Tuesday identified him as Isaac Seekell of Charlestown.

Authorities said Seekell was trying to land at the airport shortly after noon when he was forced to make an emergency landing in a field. The FAA said the Cessna C172 crashed around 12:05 p.m. local time on Monday, May 18, with only the pilot on board. First responders rushed him to the hospital, where he died.

The wreckage sat at the edge of the field along some trees as investigators prepared to start their work. The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to arrive at the scene Tuesday morning and will lead the inquiry, with the FAA also involved. Officials said it will likely take more than a year before the investigation is complete.

Seekell attended a local flight school, a detail that made the crash feel close to home in a community where aviation accidents are uncommon. Incidents at Westerly State Airport have been few and far between, and the last one that stood out came in 1999, when a pilot lost control and crashed beyond the runway, killing three people.

Neighbors near the airport heard the response unfold in real time. Jenny Fizzano said, “It's scary because we have four children, so we're always out and about in the woods right there,” while Alex Luzzi described the scene this way: “There was a bunch of police cars and stuff, and we looked back and saw the plane,” he said. Luzzi added, “We went back in the woods because it's right over there behind our house. God forbit it would've happened even closer to someone's house, it could have been a lot worse.”

The plane was registered to a company in Wilmington, Delaware, according to an FAA database. But the central fact now is simpler and harder: a young pilot who was trying to come down safely did not make it, and the official investigation that could explain why has only just begun.