MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – The head of a small Minnesota aviation company is dead after apparently being killed in a plane crash.

Authorities said Larry Allan Diffley was in a small, twin-engine aircraft when it crashed in Manhattan Township, Ill., at about 3 p.m. Wednesday. That area is about an hour south of Chicago.

Diffley was the president of Bemidji Aviation Services and was contracted by Enbridge Oil to inspect a pipeline in the area when his plane crashed into a bean field. The impact scatter debris more than 500 yards away from where the plane first hit.

In a statement, Bemidji Aviation Services said “This is a profound loss for the Diffley family, our company and the Bemidji community.”

Diffley was 74 years old.