A private plane crashed in New York over the weekend was wearing six members of a family of doctors and a distinguished sportsman and athletes distinguished on a trip to the CatSkills for a birthday celebration and the Easter holidays.
The Mitsubishi Mu-2B twin went down shortly after noon in a muddy field in Copaake, New York, near the Massachusetts line, killing everyone on board, according to authorities and a family member who spoke with Associated Press.
Shortly before the fall, the pilot had shot air traffic control at Columbia County Airport to say that he had lost the initial approach and requested a new approach plan, according to officials of the National Transport Safety Board in a Sunday informative session. During the preparation of the new coordinates, air traffic controllers sought to broadcast a low altitude alert three times, without a response from the pilot and without a strain call, said officials.
The researchers won video from the last seconds of the flight, which “seems to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent to the ground,” Todd Inman, NTSB official, told journalists.
Among the victims were Karenna Groff, an old footballer in the myth called Woman Ncaa in 2022; his father, neuroscientist, Dr. Michael Groff; Her mother, Dr. Joy Sainini, uroroginecologist; His brother, Jared Groff, a 2022 graduate at the Swarthmore College who worked as a parallel; Alexia Couyutas Duarte, a member of Jared Groff, who also graduated from Swarthmore and planned to attend the Harvard Law School this fall; and Karenna Groff’s boyfriend, James Santoro, another recent MIT graduate, according to a family statement on Sunday.
Women’s Football Graduate Mit Karenna Groff’s student launches a ball before a baseball game at Fenway Park, on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Boston.(AP Photo/Charles Krupe, File)
“They were a wonderful family,” James, John Santoro, told AP. “The world lost a lot of very good people who were going to do very well for the world if they had the opportunity. We are all personally devastated.”
Santoro said that his son first met Karenna Groff as a freshman student at MIT. Groff, who grew up in Weston, Massachusetts, was an American footballer who studied biomedical engineering. Santoro, a major mathematics in New Jersey, played for Lacrosse for school.
During Covid-19 Pandemic, Karenna Groff co-found OpenPpe, helping to create a new mask design for essential workers. In 2023, he received the prestigious NCAA Woman of the Year Prize from the previous year for his performance off and off the field.
“Really, this recognition is a testament to my family’s football family of MIT and all the guidelines, support and friendship they have provided over the years,” he said in an interview at that time.
After graduating, Santoro and Groff moved to Manhattan, where Groff enrolled at the School of Medicine at New York University, and Santoro worked as an associate of investment for Silver Point, a Greenwich headquarters, Connecticut.
Sainini, born in India, was a pelvic surgeon and the founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness, according to a family statement. He trained in Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where he met Michael Groff, who became a distinguished neurosurgeon and experienced a pilot, according to the statement.
This 2023 photo provided by John Santoro shows his son, James Santoro and Karenna Groff, a former MIT footballer called Woman of the NCAA Year.(Courtesy John Santoro via AP)
On Saturday morning, they all went to Westchester County Airport in White Plains, a suburb of New York City, where they set sail for Michael Groff’s private plane, according to John Santoro.
They were on the ground at Columbia County Airport, but crashed approximately 10 kilometers south. The aircraft was “compressed, nailed and embedded in the terrain” of a muddy agricultural field, said In Imman.
The pilot was flying under the instrument’s flight rules, instead of visual flight rules, but it was too early to determine if the reduced visibility of the weather conditions was a factor.
The aircraft had been sold a year ago and had an updated cabin with a newer technology that was certified in the administration standards of federal aviation, according to the NTSB.
The researchers expect to be at the accident site for about a week, and a complete accidents report could take 12 to 24 months to complete, said Imman.
Santoro said the funeral arrangements were underway.
“The 25 years we had with James were the best years of our lives,” he added, “and the joy and love that brought us will be enough to last a lifetime.”