Police Lt. Glenn Cuomo of the Maui Police Department's Criminal Investigation Division said the wife of the pilot identified the body this morning.

However, Cuomo said investigators must still confirm the identify using forensic methods such as fingerprinting and dental records.

NTSB investigator Tealeye Cornejo was at the crash site this morning looking for clues.

The plane crashed in a remote pasture at about the 3,700-foot level above Keokea at about 9:26 p.m. The pilot's body was thrown 30 yards from the crash site.

County fire crews initially were dispatched to what was reported as a brush fire, but then authorities were told about a possible plane crash. The Maui Fire Department sent its rescue helicopter to the remote area, and the crew spotted the burning wreckage at 10:06 p.m., said Assistant Fire Chief Frank Tam.

Department personnel hiked in darkness to the scene, where they extinguished a small fire.

The Cessna took off from Kahului Airport at 9:18 p.m. Sunday and was headed to Kona when the Kahului air control tower lost radar and radio contact with the plane six minutes later, said Donn Walker, spokesman for the Federal Aviation Administration.

A native of Belgium, Mareels became a U.S. citizen and had lived in Hawai'i for more than 10 years, friends said. He was a former United Airlines pilot, with more than 20,000 hours of flying time, they said.

Mareels apparently was also Hawai'i's only male mid-wife. Eiko Cusick, a member of the Midwives Alliance of Hawai'i, said Mareels was well respected in the field.

"He was a great guy, a great midwife," Cusick said. "It's a huge loss for moms looking for midwives."

Sunday night's explosive crash and the resulting blaze was seen across Maui's central valley. Ben Bland, a fire captain at the Kihei Fire Station, said he was returning to the firehouse from a call just before 9:30 p.m. Sunday when one of his crew members pointed to the flames on the mountain.

"It looked like a large fire," he said. The weather was "extremely clear," Bland said, but there was no moon and the mountain was "real black."

Haleakala has a history of aircraft crashes, Bland said, and aviators have told him the mountain comes up much faster than expected for many fixed-wing aircraft, especially on dark nights.