NEW YORK: Six people, including two surgeons, two of their children and the children’s partners, were killed after a small twin-engine plane crashed in a muddy field near the town of Copake, New York on Saturday, The New York Times reported.
According to a family member’s statement, the plane, a Mitsubishi MU-2B headed to Columbia County Airport near Hudson, was carrying the three couples for a 25th birthday celebration and Passover Seder.
The pilot, Michael Groff, was a neurosurgeon and experienced flyer, and his wife, Joy Saini, was a pelvic surgeon. Their daughter, Karenna Groff, was a medical student at New York University Langone and a former star soccer player at MIT, where she was named NCAA Woman of the Year in 2022.
According to the statement, Groff’s partner, James Santoro, was an investment banker and had planned to propose marriage this summer. Karenna Groff’s brother, Jared Groff, was a paralegal at a New York hedge fund who was planning to attend law school in the fall, while his partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte, planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall, The New York Times reported.
Their family member, Jonathan Becker, who works as a vice president for academic affairs at Bard College, confirmed the death of six people. In a statement, he said, “We will remember them as the six brilliant, dynamic and loving people that they were.”
The National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, said it was not clear what caused it. While addressing a news conference on Saturday afternoon, Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore said that the aircraft came down near Two Town Road and did not cause damage to any structure.
She noted that snow and moisture on the ground were impacting response efforts. Salvatore said, “It’s in the middle of a field and it’s pretty muddy, so accessibility is difficult.”
Albert Nixon, the lead investigator for the NTSB, said the plane was flying near Columbia County Airport when the pilot reported a missed approach and asked for guidance for another approach.
The air traffic controller then received an alert that the aircraft was flying at a low altitude. However, he was not able to reach the pilot. He said there was “no reason to believe” the aircraft was unsafe to fly. The plane came down 10 miles from the airport.
Nixon said 14 investigators from the NTSB were examining the wreckage. Experts from Mitsubishi, which made the plane, and Honeywell, which made the engine, along with agency investigators in Washington, have been supporting the investigators from the NTSB, The New York Times reported.
Salvatore said that in addition to the sheriff’s officers, personnel from the New York State Police and a local fire department also responded to the incident. She said that law enforcement officials received a 911 call about the crash at around noon.
According to the tracking site Flightradar24, a private aircraft of the same model departed from Westchester County Airport in New York’s White Plains shortly after 11:30 am, flying north toward Hudson before turning east at about noon. A few minutes later, the plane disappeared from the site near Copake, The New York Times reported.
In November last year, a small plane carrying a pilot and four rescue dogs crashed roughly 50 miles west of Copake. In June, five members of a family were killed after a small plane crashed near Binghamton while it was heading from Cooperstown to Georgia. (ANI)
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