A small twin-engine plane crashed and burned yesterday in a hilly, wooded area of Westmoreland County, killing the sole person aboard.

"It's a very devastating scene," said Dan Stevens, spokesman for the Westmoreland County Department of Public Safety.

The Cessna T310R went down in a steep-banked ravine around 9:42 a.m. on private property in Washington Township off Kistler Drive near state Route 66.

Small pieces of wreckage lodged in trees, and smoke billowed from the woods for a time after the accident.

Mr. Stevens said the plane took off from Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe. Its flight destination was unknown, and the pilot apparently did not make any distress calls.

No one could be reached at the airport.

Records show that the plane, a six-seater, was owned by Haber Associates Aviation Co. of Wilmington, Del. It was built in 1980.

The Federal Aviation Administration was on scene and an investigator from the National Transportation Safety Board was expected to arrive later yesterday, Mr. Stevens said.

Washington Township police were also investigating.

Mr. Stevens said there were sizable pieces of wreckage from the crash. Rescue workers were using an access road about 100 to 150 yards from the impact point to access the site, but the going was made difficult by the steep grade of the ravine, estimated at 30 or 40 degrees.