The 64-year-old pilot died when an ultralight aircraft crashed near the Gera-Leumnitz airfield.
The plane caught fire after Monday's crash, police said.
According to initial investigations, the accident happened on Monday right after the start, as a police spokesman said on request.
According to the fire brigade, witnesses first reported a small plane that was burning in a tree.
The pilot died at the scene of the accident, it said.
When the rescue workers arrived, they found a burning wreckage.
They were alerted around 3:00 p.m.
"It burned out completely," said a spokesman for the Gera fire department.
It quickly became clear that the pilot could not have survived.
Firefighters spoke of a debris field.
According to the current status of the investigation, no passenger should have been in the small plane.
BFU was switched on
The microlight crashed diagonally across from the airfield not far from the premises of a car dealership and near a shopping center, the rescue workers reported.
"It was just off the mark," said one of them.
According to the spokesman, the fire brigade was able to quickly extinguish the fire and thus prevent the flames from spreading to a dry forest area.
There was initially no information on the cause of the accident – the investigations were still ongoing, according to the police.
Specialists from the Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation (Brunswick) are on duty.