SACRAMENTO — The pilot killed when his U-2 spy plane crashed while returning to its base in the United Arab Emirates was a veteran who could have retired in the past year, but stayed in the Air Force because he loved to fly, his brother said Thursday.

Maj. Duane W. Dively, 43, from the Sacramento area, was assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron at Beale Air Force Base in Marysville, the Pentagon said. He spent more than 20 years in the military and could have retired at the beginning of the year, his brother, David Dively, told The Associated Press.

“As tragic as this is, he believed in what we were doing in that part of the world and he loved what he was doing and he loved to fly,” Dively said by phone from his parent’s house in Hollidaysburg, Pa.

The cause of the crash in Southwest Asia is still under investigation, but Dively said...