Rochester, N.Y. (WHAM) — The medical community is mourning the loss of Dr. Michael Groff, a leading neurosurgeon at Rochester Regional Health, who was killed along with his family in a plane crash south of Albany in Columbia County. The crash, which occurred as the family was celebrating his daughter’s birthday, remains under investigation.

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Dr. Groff, who was piloting the Mitsubishi MU-2B aircraft, was among six people killed in the crash on Saturday. NTSB officials said the scene is located in an open field with the aircraft reportedly “compressed, buckled, and embedded into the terrain.”

Dr. Robert Mayo, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Rochester Regional Health, told 13WHAM that Groff joined the team last July and will be greatly missed.

“I think that the community knew him, and I knew him as an incredibly intelligent, caring person, and he used his talents to serve this community, and though it was a short time, it had a very significant impact,” Mayo said. “Certainly, his much longer career in the Boston area served hundreds, if not thousands of patients there. People’s lives had been better because of him.”

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the small passenger plane was set to land at Columbia County Airport but crashed roughly 10 miles south.

During a media briefing Monday, the board said the investigation will be looking at photo and video evidence, weather data, and conducting interviews with air traffic controllers to try and determine the cause of the crash.

“Off our initial review, we feel comfortable that that plane should be flying, we see no issue with that, especially with its inspections,” Todd Inman said. “We’ve made good progress today and yesterday, it’s still very early, our objective is not just to find out what happened, but why it happened so we can make a recommendation, so this does not happen again. We are not going to be speculating on what may have caused the accident.”

According to the Associated Press, minutes before landing, Groff radioed air traffic control at Columbia County Airport, to communicate that he had missed the initial approach. NTSB officials said air traffic controllers attempted to relay a low-altitude alert and tried to contact him three additional times, but were unsuccessful.

The crash also claimed the lives of Groff’s wife, Dr. Joy Saini, who was a urogynecologist in Boston, his son Jared, and his daughter Karenna, a former NCAA Woman of the Year. Jared and Karenna’s partners, Alexia Couyutas Duarte and James Santoro, were also on board and did not survive.

“Just a wonderful family, and so their loss will be felt in many communities across the Northeast,” Mayo said.

The NTSB confirmed that Dr. Groff was proficient and had completed all required training to fly the aircraft. A preliminary report is expected in 30 days, with a final report anticipated within 12 to 24 months.