COLONA, Ill. – At least one person was killed Monday when a small plane bound from Iowa to Kentucky crashed east of the Quad Cities, authorities said.

Officials remained at the scene Monday afternoon and no information was available on the victim or whether there were others aboard the single-engine plane.

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said the plane was headed from Waterloo, Iowa, to Georgetown, Ky., when it crashed shortly after 8 a.m. in a soybean field north of Colona, a town of about 5,000 people east of the Quad Cities.

Two people who were about a quarter-mile away reported hearing the plane’s engine, and then “heard a thud,” Illinois State Police trooper Jason Wilson told the (Rock Island) Argus and (Moline) Dispatch.

The crash occurred not far from the Quad Cities International Airport, but Cory said it appears the plane was passing over and not approaching for a landing.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead an investigation into the crash, which officials say could take several months.