LEAVENWORTH COUNTY, Kan. -- A plane nosedived into a field Tuesday morning in Leavenworth County, killing at least two people.

Three people surveying for road improvements witnessed the crash near 222nd Street and County Road 1.

"Just the motor obviously had malfunctions or something," said Billy Stone, of Surveys Inc. "Once we heard it, it was loud, then all of a sudden, it was quiet, and then we saw the plane go down, straight nose dive, and that was it."

The Aero Commander 500 twin-engine Shrike training plane was owned by Central Air Southwest, which operates out of the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City, Mo.

Sources at the airport said two men boarded the plane at the downtown airport, a flight instructor and a trainee who was flying the plane. The trainee was on a check ride, a test that pilots take every six months.

The Kansas Highway Patrol confirmed that at least two people on board died in the crash.

A family friend identified one of the victims as Murray Brown, 47, of Kansas City, Kan., the director of operations for Central Air Southwest.

Brown, a father of three was from the United Kingdom and was an experienced flight instructor and pilot who had flown for about 25 years, the friend said.

The trainee in the plane was identified as James Phillip Jambor, 24, of Fort Worth, Texas.

Federal Aviation Administration officials were at the scene investigating Tuesday.