HARTSELLE — A former Limestone County circuit judge, who made headlines in 1981 when he was sentenced to prison for smuggling more than 100 pounds of marijuana into the country, was killed in a plane crash Monday in Morgan County near Hartselle.

Tom Coggin, 66, of Cullman was flying a single-engine airplane when it crashed in a field near the Hartselle municipal airport, authorities said.

Hartselle Police Chief Ron Puckett said the plane crashed about 8 a.m. near the runway of Roundtree Field and that the pilot was the only person aboard. That pilot was later identified as being Coggin.

The cause of the crash was not immediately known. The Federal Aviation Administration was sending investigators to the crash site Monday.

Coggin, who at the time of his arrest in 1981 was a circuit judge for both Limestone and Morgan counties, spent 17 months in federal prison after he entered a guilty plea to smuggling the marijuana into the country from the Bahamas. He was arrested in Saint Lucie, Fla., by federal agents when his plane landed with the marijuana.

While the cause has not yet been determined, officials at Cullman’s Folsom Field reported Coggin took off from the airport at approximately 6:45 a.m. Monday.

After making two flyovers — a common, but illegal maneuver in which the

pilot flies low over the runway — he made the five-minute flight to Rountree where he normally purchased fuel.

According to an investigator with the Federal Aviation Administration, before landing, he conducted another flyover, but stalled, crashing nose-down just beyond the tree line in an open field east of the runway.

The crash was reported at approximately 8 a.m. by a resident who saw the wreckage as he left for work, according Hartselle Police.

No one else was aboard the ill-fated craft. It is not clear if the accident was the result of a mechanical failure, pilot error or some sort of health problem, according to the FAA.

Coggin’s body has been sent to Huntsville for an autopsy.

Local pilots reported he had more than 30 years experience flying.

“He was a damn good pilot, very experienced,” said fellow pilot James Windsor Monday. “He flew all over the place. I will be very surprised if they determine it was the result of pilot error.”

While Coggin’s RV-6 is technically classified as experimental by the

FAA, because it is homemade, local pilots said it is a safe, common type of aircraft.

It is capable of flying more than three hours on a single fueling at speeds over 160 mph, according to the pilots.