OSBORN, Mo. • The Missouri State Highway Patrol says two men are dead after a small plane crashed in a pasture in the northwestern part of the state.

The Kansas City Star reports the patrol and Clinton County authorities were working Tuesday night to identify the men. Federal investigators will begin seeking the cause of the crash Wednesday.

Authorities say the 1967 single-engine Piper Cherokee went down around 4:30 p.m. Tuesday in a rural area near Osborn, about 45 miles northeast of Kansas City.

The Highway Patrol says people in a nearby home knew at least one person on the low-flying plane and waved as it flew by. The plane went down about 200 yards from the house.

No one else was on the plane. Authorities were unsure where it had taken off.