The national transportation safety board (NTSB) is investigating a “fatal crash” in Copake, eastern New York, official Todd Inman told reporters today, without specifying the number of deaths.

The Mitsubishi MU2B40 aircraft crashed into a field 16km from the local Columbia County Airport shortly after noon yesterday, Inman said.

The New York Times reported that all six people on board were dead, citing a family member.

The victims were Michael Groff, the pilot and a neurosurgeon, his surgeon wife Joy Saini, their two children and the children’s partners, the New York Times said.

The group had been travelling to a 25th birthday party and a Passover gathering, it added.

Inman said the aircraft was intact as it came down, before it “compressed, buckled and embedded into the terrain” from the force of the impact.

“During the approach at Columbia County Airport, the pilot reported a missed approach (and) he requested vectors for another approach,” he said.

Visibility was falling before the crash happened, Inman said.

The pilot was experienced and the aircraft’s cockpit was recently updated.

The incident is the latest in a string of aviation disasters in recent days, coming after a helicopter plummeted into the Hudson River last week, killing six people.

In January, 67 people died in a collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington.

A light aircraft also crashed after departing Boca Raton airport in Florida on Saturday, with local media reporting three people had been killed after the plane developed a mechanical issue.