One person died in the small plane that crashed and sparked a fire near Battle Ground on Friday.

A preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration said the pilot — the sole occupant of the Cessna C172 — lost control under “unknown circumstances.”

Clark-Cowlitz Fire Rescue personnel responded to the crash around 1 p.m. and found the plane fully engulfed in flames in a field near the Goheen Airport. Fire crews extinguished the blaze and prevented it from spreading to nearby trees and structures.

The FlightAware tracking site reported the plane was first seen around 12:30 p.m. in Kelso, about 30 miles northwest of the airport.

A flight tracker shows the plane descended from 1,900 feet to 800 feet as it approached the airport before ascending again. It made two more loops nea

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