Six people, including former NCAA Woman of the Year and MIT soccer standout Karenna Groff, were killed in a plane crash in Copake, New York, on Saturday, according to the FAA. The victims, most of whom were family members, died around 12:15 p.m. when their Mitsubishi MU-2B aircraft crashed into a muddy field roughly ten miles south of their destination, Columbia County Airport.
The six deceased include Karenna Groff, her parents Dr. Michael Groff and Dr. Joy Saini, her brother Jared Groff, his partner Alexia Couyutas Duarte, and Karenna’s boyfriend James Santoro. Karenna was studying medicine at NYU at the time of her death. The plane, privately owned by Dr. Michael Groff, had departed from Westchester County Airport earlier that morning.
According to the FAA, the pilot contacted air traffic control before the crash to report a missed approach and requested new landing instructions. Controllers issued new coordinates and attempted to send a low altitude alert three times—but received no response.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating the crash. NTSB official Todd Inman said the wreckage was “compressed, buckled and embedded in the terrain,” and that video evidence showed the plane was “intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground.” The aircraft had recently been upgraded with “newer FAA-certified technology,” and the pilot was operating under instrument flight rules.
James Santoro’s father, John Santoro, spoke to the Associated Press, mourning the loss: “The world lost a lot of very good people who were going to do a lot of good for the world if they had the opportunity. We’re all personally devastated.”
The cause of the crash remains under investigation and could take up to 24 months to determine.
