CHICAGO - The pilot of a small plane was killed on Monday after his plane crashed in the south of an airport in Racine, Wisconsin of the United States. No one else was on board.

The plane, which took off from the Central Wisconsin Airport, lost altitude shortly before the crash and the pilot acted heroically by crashing in an open field, avoiding several populated subdivisions nearby, the local newspaper Journal Times on Tuesday quoted the local police as saying.

The pilot was pronounced dead at the scene Monday night. The Federal Aviation Administration, National Transportation Safety Board and local police are investigating the cause of the crash.