Victims of fatal Copake plane crash identified

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Victims of fatal Copake plane crash identified

The six people on board who were killed in a plane crash in Columbia County includes two doctors and a former MIT soccer player recently named NCAA Woman of the Year.

The six people who were killed in a plane crash in Copake Saturday included two doctors and a former MIT soccer player recently named NCAA Woman of the Year.

Friends and family are mourning the loss of Dr. Michael Groff, a neuroscientist, and Dr. Joy Saini, their daughter, former standout MIT soccer player Karenna Groff, and her boyfriend, James Santoro.

Also killed were Karenna’s brother Jared Groff and his partner Alexia Duarte.

Authorities say there were six people on board– a pilot and five passengers– and that there were no survivors.

The NTSB gave a briefing Sunday evening.

Investigators say the private plane, a Mitsubishi MU 2B, took off from Westchester County Airport and went down in a field in Copake Saturday off of Two Town Road near Route 23 at about noon, about 10 miles from its intended destination, the Columbia County Airport.

“We have recovered and obtained at this point a video of the actual crash in the final seconds,” said NTSB Member Todd Inman. “The video as we’ve seen just in the last hour we were able to obtain a higher quality version appears to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground.”

Investigators say during the approach at Columbia County Airport, the pilot reported a missed approach.

“He requested vectors for another approach. And as he was being vectored, the radar indicated a low altitude alert,” said NTSB Investigator In Charge Albert Nixon. “The [ ] controller attempted to relay this low altitude alert to the pilot and also tried to contact him three additional times. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful.”

Nixon said there was no response, and no distress call.

According to the Associated Press, the close-knit family was heading to the Catskills for a birthday celebration and the Passover holiday.

Karenna Groff was a former MIT soccer player who was named the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year. She was at NYU Medical School.

Her boyfriend, James Santoro, was also a recent MIT graduate and worked for a hedge fund.

Karenna’s father was a neuroscientist, Dr. Michael Groff. He was also said to be an experienced pilot.

Her mother, Dr. Joy Saini, was a urogynecologist, and the founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness.

Her brother Jared Groff, worked as a paralegal.

His partner, Alexia Duarte, planned to go to Harvard Law School in the fall.