Deputies noted Dawson had been a pilot since the 1960's and he was flying a four-seat single engine Beechcraft Model 23.
According to Miami County Deputy Sgt. Lee McCartney, "We are not sure what caused the crash, possibly engine trouble or illness, we just don't know."
An investigator from the Federal Aviation Administration isn't due at the scene until Friday morning because of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Dawson was removed to the Montgomery County Coroner's office in Dayton for an autopsy. He was pinned in the wreckage.
McCartney said it appeared the airplane struck a line of trees then landed nose first into a muddy cornfield. There was no fire upon impact.
Shortly before 9 o'clock a resident told a firefighter he heard an airplane fly over his home. Then a short time later, he said he "heard a hell of a bang that shook his home."
The scene is about two miles west of West Milton in Union Township near the intersection of Rangeline Road and Emerick Road and about three miles north of the Phillipsburg airport.
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