An NIU student died Tuesday when the plane he was flying crashed into a field one and one-half miles southeast of Mt. Morris, Ill.

Michael W. Tubbs, 18, 521 Stevenson South, was pronounced dead at the scene after the Cessna 172 single engine aircraft crashed at about 6 p.m. Tubbs is a native of Byron, Ill.

The pre-business major left the Ogle County Airport after 5 p.m., enroute to the DeKalb Taylor Municipal Airport about 40 miles away. Witnesses said the plane circled in the air before crashing. The Ogle County Sheriff’s Police did not list any mechanical failures or associated weather problems.

Tubbs intended to use the four-passenger plane to give four friends waiting for him at the DeKalb Airport a ride as part of a birthday celebration for one of the intended passengers.

Ogle County Sheriff’s Police and Mt. Morris Fire and Ambulance Departments responded to the incident. The plane’s wreckage and surrounding crash site has been secured, awaiting today’s arrival and subsequent investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration.