There were signs of visible distress before a plane crashed in Colonie on Monday morning.

As NewsChannel 13 has reported, the crash happened very close to dozens of homes, the Colonie Town Library, and busy Albany Shaker Road.

National Transportation Safety Board Air Safety Investigator Lynn Spencer and other investigators gave an update on the investigation late Tuesday afternoon.

The plane had been doing surveying activities in North Carolina, Spencer said, and was heading back to Canada. It made an overnight stop in Albany to refuel.

It had difficulty gaining altitude, went nearly straight up, and did a loop before turning left, and rolling over at least once. It did another left turn before the crash.

Spencer called the flight path typical of an extreme loss of control situation in the cockpit, with a pilot attempting to regain control.

“Our investigation will include examination of what we call the man, machine and the environment. We will be looking at the pilot – qualifications, training – the airframe itself, any environmental factors,” said Spencer.

The first steps will include analyzing recorders, fracture surfaces, impact scars, audio, video, and anything else that may have captured the incident, Spencer said.

The plane will be taken to a facility in Massachusetts, with a preliminary report expected in two to three weeks.

The name of the pilot still hasn’t been officially released. However, her family said in a Facebook post that her name is Natalie Gillis. However, she was an air transport pilot, investigators said. That is the highest level of training for a pilot – above a commercial pilot.

NewsChannel 13 continues to follow this story and will bring you updates on WNYT.com as we get them, and on our later newscasts.