Ramona

A 43-year-old Escondido executive died early Tuesday when his plane crashed near the Ramona airport, officials said.

Robert Lee Blunt, of the 2000 block of Oro Verde Road, died at 5:27 a.m. when the wing of his twin-engine Piper Aerostar hit the ground, causing the plane to flip and land upside-down in a pasture less than a mile southwest of the airport, officials said.

Airport officials said Blunt, who was flying to Idaho on a business trip, may have lost control of the plane when an engine failed shortly after takeoff and could have been trying to return to the airport when he crashed.

Poor visibility also could have contributed to the accident, officials said. The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration are investigating.

He was vice president and a co-owner of Harborlite Corp., an Escondido company that manufactures industrial filtering equipment.