A respected Florida plastic surgeon died when the private plane he was piloting crashed in an Indiana soybean field over the weekend.

Daniel P. Greenwald, a 59-year-old physician from Tampa and experienced general aviation pilot, died from blunt-force trauma when the Piper 602P plane he was flying suddenly crashed in a field along the Indiana 22 highway east of Kokomo.

The plane had taken off from Kokomo Municipal Airport some time before 5pm on Saturday and the aircraft crashed about four miles away a short time later. The cause of the crash is not yet known.

When deputies arrived on the scene they found the charred wreckage of the twin-engine plane just a few hundreds years from the roadway with Greenwald inside.

Respected Florida plastic surgeon Daniel P. Greenwald, 59, died Saturday of blunt force trauma when the private twin-engine plane he was piloting crashed into a soybean field in Indiana

He was pronounced dead at the scene and Howard County Coroner's Office says the preliminary cause of death is blunt force trauma. The cause of the crash is not yet known

He was pronounced dead at the scene and Howard County Coroner's Office says the preliminary cause of death is blunt force trauma.

Greenwald owned Bayshore Plastic Surgery on East Kennedy Boulevard in Tampa, where he was trusted with the must difficult cosmetic surgeries at the practice, according to WFLA.

According to the practice's website he was named one of America's top surgeons in 2009. He started his career in the Tampa Bay area in 1993.

He was also an experienced general aviation pilot with hundreds of hours of flight time experience, according to his staff and co-workers.

In the wake of the Haiti earthquake in 2010, he flew to the island to bring medical supplies and donate his time as a surgeon in the relief effort.

The Piper 602P plane had taken off from Kokomo Municipal Airport some time before 5pm on Saturday and the aircraft crashed about four miles away a short time later. First responders pictured at the scene

Greenwald pictured on Facebook posing with a plane. He was an experienced general aviation pilot with hundreds of hours of flight time experience, according to his staff and co-workers

In the wake of the Haiti earthquake in 2010 he flew to the island to bring medical supplies

He also stayed in Haiti to donate his time as a surgeon in the relief effort. Pictured above bringing supplies to the Haiti airport

He previously told the Tampa Bay Times in a 2003 interview that he had been flying since he was a teenager and he loved the adrenaline rush of piloting.

'I get to recharge my batteries by directing all my mental abilities into one specific thing that’s not work,' he said in that old interview. 'Everything else in life takes a back seat to what you’re doing [in the cockpit].'

'He was a consummate airman, he was a guy who loved aviation in all forms,' Greenwald's friend and fellow pilot Dr. Richard Karl, said. 'He pursued jets, he pursued aerobatics — he was a guy who loved to fly as much as he loved to breathe.'

He was also a husband and father to two children.

'He was the center of our family's universe,' his daughter Alix Greenwald, 31, said to the Tampa Bay Times. 'I've never met anyone more skilled at so many things. He spent all his time learning new things, mastering skills and spending time with his family.'

He was also a husband and father to two children, pictured together above

'He was the center of our family's universe,' his daughter Alix Greenwald, 31, said. Greenwald pictured above with his wife Juli Robbins Greenwald

Greenwald (left) owned Bayshore Plastic Surgery in Tampa and was named one of America's top surgeons in 2009

Tampa General Hospital, where he worked as a part of the medical staff for more than 20 years, released a statement in wake of his death.

'We are deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death of Dr. Daniel Greenwald, an outstanding member of our medical staff for more than two decades. He was an immensely talented surgeon who took on the most complex cases and mastered them,' the statement said.

'His education included studies at Harvard, Princeton and Yale. He was a member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, as well as several other medical and scientific societies, and was nationally respected in his field,' the statement added.

'Just a very unfortunate thing, but he truly loved to fly, and very sad that he's gone, but I know he went doing something he enjoyed,' Greewald's neighbor Harold Walker said to WTSP.

The Federal Aviation Administration has been notified of the crash and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident.