An 81-year-old pilot died Thursday after his small experimental aircraft crashed into a pond in a state forest in the northeastern US state of Massachusetts, local officials said.

The victim, identified as Richard Carrara, 81, of Kingston, Massachusetts, was the sole occupant of the two-seater plane when it went down in Curlew Pond, located in Myles Standish State Forest near the coastal town of Plymouth, about 60 kilometres southeast of Boston.

Police and firefighters from Plymouth arrived at the scene around 7:45 am local time and found Carrara trapped inside the aircraft, which had flipped over in the water, according to Plymouth Police Captain Marc Higgins, Plymouth Independent reported.

With help from bystanders, officers and firefighters managed to pull the pilot from the wreckage and began emergency life-saving measures, Higgins said. Carrara was taken to a nearby hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital-Plymouth, where he later died.

"The Plymouth Police Department and Plymouth Fire Department extend their condolences to the pilot's family and loved ones," the departments said in a joint statement.

Authorities said Carrara had taken off from Plymouth Airport at 7:01 am, bound for Katama Airpark on the island of Martha's Vineyard, a popular tourist destination off the Massachusetts coast. He was en route back to Plymouth when the crash occurred.

The cause of the accident remains under investigation.

According to US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) records, the aircraft was a single-engine, two-seat Dakota Cub Super 18, registered to an entity in South Portland, in the northeastern state of Maine. The manufacturer describes the model as a kit-built aircraft designed for backcountry flying on unpaved airstrips.

The FAA classifies such aircraft as "experimental," meaning they are assembled from kits rather than built in licensed factories and are subject to different regulatory oversight than commercially manufactured planes.

Source: Local Media