• A flight that took off from Westchester on April 12, crashed in Columbia County
• Victims of the Copake, NY, plane crash include 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year Karenna Groff
• The NTSB is asking anyone with footage of the plane crash in Copake to come forward

Six people aboard a plane that took off from Westchester County Airport on Saturday, April 12, died after it crashed in upstate New York, a National Transport Safety Board member said Sunday night.

The Mitsubishi MU-2B was traveling to Hudson’s Columbia County Airport but crashed into a field near Copake, some 10 miles from the airport, near Route 23 and Two Town Road, around 12:06 p.m., said Todd Inman, a National Transportation Safety Board member who gave Sunday’s briefing.

They were six members of a close-knit family of physicians and distinguished student-athletes on a trip to the Catskills for a birthday celebration and the Passover holiday, the Associated Press reported.

“On behalf of everyone at the NTSB I want to express our sincere condolences for the families the survivors of the families and everyone who knew someone that perished in this accident We’re truly sorry anytime anyone has to go through this,” Inman said.

As the plane neared its destination of Columbia County Airport, the pilot reported a missed approach, the NTSB’s Albert Nixon said Sunday. The pilot requested vectors for another approach “and, as he is being vectored, the radar indicated a low altitude alert.” Air traffic control attempted to relay the alert and tried to contact him three additional times but was unsuccessful. “There was no response from the pilot and there was no distress call.”

The NTSB said it has obtained crash video.

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Who were the victims in the Columbia County crash?

The AP reported the victims were Karenna Groff, a former MIT soccer player named the 2022 NCAA woman of the year; her father, a neuroscientist, Dr. Michael Groff; her mother, Dr. Joy Saini, a urogynecologist; her brother, Jared Groff, a 2022 graduate of Swarthmore College who worked as a paralegal; Alexia Couyutas Duarte, Jared Groff’s partner who also graduated Swarthmore and planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall; and Karenna Groff’s boyfriend, James Santoro, another recent MIT graduate, according to a family statement Sunday.

“They were a wonderful family,” James’ father, John Santoro, told AP. “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.”

Santoro told the AP his son first met Karenna Groff as a freshman studying at MIT, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Groff, who grew up in Weston, Massachusetts, a Boston suburb, was an All-American soccer player studying biomedical engineering. Santoro, a New Jersey math major, played lacrosse for the school. After graduating, Santoro and Groff moved to Manhattan, where Groff enrolled in medical school at New York University and Santoro worked as an investment associate for Silver Point, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut.

India-born Saini was an accomplished pelvic surgeon and founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness, according to a family statement. She trained in medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where she met Michael Groff, who became a distinguished neurosurgeon and experienced pilot, the statement said.

On Saturday morning, they all headed to Westchester County Airport, where they boarded Michael Groff’s private plane, according to John Santoro, the AP reported.

NTSB to investigate Copake plane crash

Inman said the NTSB will determine the crash’s probable cause.

He said the NTSB team will be at the scene for what he suspected will be at least a week. Investigators will not be determining the probable cause while on scene. Inman anticipated NTSB having a preliminary report within 30 days and the full investigative report will take an anticipated 12 to 24 months.

“Our mission is to understand not just what happened, but why it happened, and to provide recommendations for it not to happen again,” Inman said.

Inman said anyone with crash footage should send it to the NTSB at [email protected].

Contributing: Associated Press

(This story may update.)