By Lookout Staff

August 13, 2012 -- A small plane crashed in West Los Angeles Friday evening as it was returning to Santa Monica Airport, killing the pilot, who was the only person aboard.

The pilot has been identified as Sean McMillan, a Westchester resident who flew as a volunteer for Angel Flight, which flies charitable medical missions, according to reports.

The plane was registered to a Santa Monica resident at the City's 67-year-old airport, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials said.

McMillan's single-engine Cessna 210 crashed at about 6:15 p.m. two blocks from Olympic and Westwood boulevards and about three miles northeast of the municipal airport.

Firefighters and police officers raced to the scene of the crash that damaged the exterior wall of a home, set a palm tree ablaze and sent smoke into the air, according to news reports.

It is not known why the pilot -- who had taken off from the airport earlier in the evening -- declared an emergency at around 6:10 p.m., said FAA spokesman Ian Gregor.

Those who knew McMillan said they were not surprised the plane did not his any homes or people.

"I know for a fact Sean would've aimed his airplane at the last moment for an empty street," Charlie Fredricy, McMillan's neighbor, told NBC Channel 4 News.

"Sean McMillan is the kind of person that would give you the shirt off his back," Fredricy told the station.

McMillan, a graduate of USC and Harvard law school, was a lawyer and shareholder at Greenberg Traurig, a Century City-based firm.

An impromptu memorial erected at the scene of the crash included a hand-written card, according to one report. It read:  

"I watched your last few second of life, and I prayed for you! I saw you saved lives by your effort."

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the accident.