Entrance sign at Langley Air Force Base. (Joint Base Langley-Eustis)

WASHINGTON — A pilot was killed Thursday while attempting to land a civilian aircraft at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., base officials said.

The crash happened at about 11:39 a.m. when the aircraft landed in preparation for the Air Power Over Hampton Roads air show scheduled for the weekend.

The pilot was the only person on board the aircraft and died as a result of the crash. The name of the pilot is being withheld pending next-of-kin notification, according to Langley-Eustis.

However, the official Facebook page of aerobatic pilot Rob Holland posted that he was the person who died in the crash at the base.

“Today, we lost a friend of our Air Force family,” said Col. Matthew Altman, Joint Base Langley-Eustis commander. “On behalf of our entire JBLE team, I want to express our deepest sympathy to the family and friends of this incredible aviator.”

The National Transportation Safety Board said in a post on X that it is investigating the crash of an experimental “MX Aircraft MXS” near Hampton, Va.

The MXS is a single-seat airplane, according to the MX Aircraft website. The Australian company specializes in sport, aerobatic and race aircraft.

The airshow is scheduled at the base for Saturday and Sunday.

The base is composed of the Army’s Fort Eustis and Langley Air Force Base, which sits near the southwestern edge of the Chesapeake Bay.

The installation is home to squadrons of F-22 Raptor fighter jets. One of them shot down a Chinese spy balloon over the Atlantic Ocean in 2023.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.