MARYSVILLE — Federal investigators were at the scene Thursday of a fatal plane crash near the Arlington Airport.

Ironically, plane after plane was flying over the crash site as they prepared for the Arlington Fly-In, which takes place Friday through Sunday. The site is directly in line with the landing strip.

A National Transportation and Safety Board investigator was using a drone with a camera attached, while a Federal Aviation Administration investigator was using a more-traditional 35mm camera.

Greg Capes, 64, of Lake Stevens was killed when the single-engine plane crashed into a field Wednesday about a mile short of the airport. The pilot crashed around 7 p.m. in the 15700 block of 51st Avenue NE in Marysville.

Capes lived north of Lake Stevens at a gated neighborhood called Frontier Airpark. Capes had just registered the single-engine Murphy Moose with the Federal Aviation Administration, which on June 6 OK’d the fixed-wing plane as airworthy. Capes had been flying the home-built kit airplane with an experimental certificate. It had a Vedeneyev M14-PF engine built in Russia, according to the FAA.

In another bit of irony, the Fly-In and airport have had some experimental airplane crashes in their history.

Capes died of blunt trauma, according to the Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office. At least one witness reported the plane appeared to be trying to land when it rolled, said Christie Veley, a Marysville Fire Department spokeswoman. The aircraft was severely damaged. Nearby, a farmer was irrigating his field Thursday.

It was not clear if the plane had any connection to the airfield, said Kristin Banfield, Arlington’s city spokeswoman.