The president of a leading Jewish seminary died Saturday morning after the small plane he was piloting crashed about 70 miles northwest of Manhattan, according to the institution.

The death of the president, Rabbi Aaron D. Panken of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, was announced by Jean Bloch Rosensaft, a spokeswoman for the seminary, late Saturday night.

[Obituary: Rabbi Aaron Panken, Reform Seminary President, Dies in Plane Crash at 53]

The Federal Aviation Administration said an Aeronca 7AC aircraft crashed just after takeoff from Randall Airport in Orange County, N.Y., on Saturday morning. F.A.A. officials said two people were aboard the plane but did not release their names and conditions. A spokesman for the New York State Police did not immediately respond to a request for additional information.

But Ms. Rosensaft confirmed that Rabbi Panken, 53, had been killed in the crash. In an interview, she said he was a “highly skilled pilot” who had been on what she called a routine flight check with an instructor. The Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y., said the second person on the plane had injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening.