The unidentified pilot of a small airplane died Wednesday in a fiery crash just north of the airport serving the Fort Collins and Loveland area.

The crash was reported shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday about a quarter-mile northwest of the Larimer Humane Society off Larimer County Road 30. The crash site is just north of the airport.

Airport officials at 1:07 p.m. tweeted that a twin-engine Beechcraft made an emergency landing on County Road 30. While number of passengers on board has not been released, Loveland city officials confirmed one fatality in the crash. Reporters on scene following the crash did not see any first-responder activity that would indicate any passengers had been removed from the crash scene by ambulance.

The plane crashed on private property in a dry retention pond, and the Larimer County health department is assessing any mitigation needs for spilled fuel, said Carie Dann, Loveland Fire Rescue Authority battalion chief.

A Coloradoan reporter at the scene observed emergency responders attending to the wreckage of the aircraft roughly 100 yards from the road. Workers also searched for debris in the area.

Archives of Loveland Fire Rescue Authority emergency audio indicate that the unidentified pilot of the aircraft reported smoke in the cockpit and one engine out prior to attempting to land. Airport officials said the engine caught fire prior to the crash.

Christopher Walston was less than a mile away at Leading Edge Flight Training preparing for a flight with his instructor when he saw a plane in the sky, with orange flames coming out of the body and right engine.

The plane was veering left and it looked like the pilot was trying to get it to the runway, Walston said. The plane went behind some buildings and out of sight, Walston said. Five to 10 seconds later, he saw smoke and dialed 911.

Walston said he may have heard an explosion, but he's not sure.

During his flight lesson, he and his instructor circled the airport four times, and "from what I saw, there was not much left of the aircraft," he said.

Guy Gowan said he was driving through the roundabout at County Road 30 and Boyd Lake Avenue when his friend and passenger Sharon Pearson pointed out the flaming plane plummeting "almost like a fireball" to the ground.

Gowan said it appeared the plane was spiraling or it had flipped over, possibly trying to turn.

"The whole thing was engulfed in flames, and it was that way before it hit the ground," Gowan said.

Gowan and Pearson were the first to arrive on the scene aside from a person fixing a truck in the area, Gowan said. It happened so fast that when they got to the crash scene, he could only see a plume of black smoke and fire.

"You couldn't get to anybody," Gowan said. "There was no way."

Poudre Fire Authority assisted with the response. The crash will be under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA.

The NTSB was expected to arrive Wednesday afternoon and take control of the scene. County Road 30 will remain closed for an undetermined amount of time. The road was blocked at its intersection with County Road 9 (Boyd Lake Avenue). Only credentialed media and people with business at the Humane Society were being permitted to pass at 2 p.m.

County Road 30 and 71st Street, which remained closed most of the afternoon while investigators searched for debris, reopened about 4:30 p.m.

Beechcraft builds two twin-engine models, the 8- to 15-passenger King Air and six-passenger Baron, in addition to the single-engine Bonanza.

The regional airport does not offer commercial service but is a hub of private aviation between the Denver metro area and Cheyenne, Wyoming. Normal airport operations continued during the off-airport emergency response.

Three people were injured in March when a plane crashed west of the airport. The plane was traveling southwest when it crashed, clipping a power line and damaging a power pole.

The pilot and two passengers suffered non-lifethreatening injuries in that crash, according to the Larimer County Sheriff's Office.

This is a developing story. Return to Coloradoan.com for additional details as they become available.