OKLAHOMA CITY — The U.S. Secretary of Defense on Monday confirmed the death of U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe’s son, 52-year-old Dr. Perry Inhofe, who was killed in a weekend plane crash in Oklahoma.

Col. Steve Warren, a Pentagon spokesman, said that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel “was informed of Sen. Inhofe’s son’s death.”

Perry Inhofe, an orthopedic surgeon, died when the small plane he was piloting crashed Sunday near Owasso, a Tulsa suburb.

“My thoughts and prayers are with Jim and Kay and their family as they mourn this terrible loss,” Hagel said in a statement Monday. He added that the entire Department of Defense supports the Inhofe family and has “enduring appreciation for all they do on behalf of our military.”

Perry Inhofe, who worked at Central States Orthopedics in Tulsa, was one of four children of Oklahoma’s senior U.S. senator. He earned his undergraduate degree from Duke University in 1984 and graduated from medical school at Washington University in St. Louis.

The married father lived in Tulsa.

The multiengine plane was headed to Tulsa International Airport when it crashed shortly before 4 p.m. Sunday about 5 miles north of the airport, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. The plane had taken off from Salina, Kan.

Jake Bray told the Tulsa World newspaper that he saw the crash from about 400 yards away, saying one propeller appeared to be out before “it started spiraling out of control and it hit the ground.”

Jim Inhofe, 79, has been a pilot for more than 50 years and owns several planes.

In an interview earlier this year with General Aviation News, the senator said he taught his son Perry to fly in the family’s 1954 Grumman Tiger and that the tradition was passed on to Perry Inhofe’s 16-year-old son, Cole Cole, who made his first landing in September at an air show in Wisconsin.