New information has surfaced following the fatal plane crash that took the lives of a family of doctors and student athletes.
When their private aircraft crashed in New York on April 12, a family of medical professionals, students, and their partners perished. A twin-engine turboprop Mitsubishi MU-2B, which had flown out of White Plains, crashed close to the Massachusetts border trying to land at Columbia County Airport.
Credit: NTSB
Michael Groff was a neuroscientist and experienced pilot. His wife Joy Saini was a doctor, and their children, Karenna and Jared Groff, both from MIT, were also killed. As the Times Union reports, Karenna’s boyfriend James Sontoro as well as Jared’s partner Alexia Couyutas Duarte were also dead. Amazingly, their daughter Anika was not on board when the incident occurred.
Michael Groff, the pilot, had first missed the runway but then contacted air traffic controllers to ask for a second landing attempt just before the catastrophic occurrence. According to The New York Post, the control tower sent a “low altitude alert shortly after,” and all contact with the jet vanished.
New information about what happened before the disaster has been found through research. Originally set to leave Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, at 11:16 AM, Groff, 55, missed his approach to the runway of Columbia County Airport, so the private plane was delayed. An investigator’s report states Groff departed Boston early that morning to pick up Karenna and her lover Sontoro from White Plains. Groff told air traffic control he had missed his designated landing slot at about 11:57 AM.
The air traffic controller then gave Michael Groff new landing directions, which he wrote down just after noon. But after one minute, the controller told Groff that his plane was going too low. Groff never answered air traffic control even after several tries at communication. The story claims that before the jet tragically crashed, there were no more radio messages from it, therefore killing everyone on board.
Credit: AP
The crash took place on a dirty, snow-covered field about ten miles south of the airport. The report said that there were no important weather alerts for the area at that time.
Following this terrible event, the Groff, Santoro, and Duarte families issued a united statement saying, “We are grieved by the loss of our beloved family members. We shall remember them as the six outstanding, vibrant, loving persons they were.”
His father, John Santoro, told the Associated Press about his son’s death, “They were a beautiful family.”
Many very wonderful people who, given the chance, would have done a great deal for the planet were lost. Each of us is personally shattered.
The family was en route to the Catskills to celebrate Karenna’s 25th birthday and Passover when the horrible disaster happened. At MIT, Karenna was a remarkable soccer player who was named the NCAA Woman of the Year in 2022 while concurrently studying medicine at NYU.
In reflection on her accomplishments, she said, “Really, this honor is a tribute to the MIT women’s soccer family and all the help, support, and friendship they have given me over the years.”
Like Karenna, James was an MIT graduate employed in finance. An associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Michael Groff, the pilot, oversaw neuroscience at Rochester Regional Health from an executive level. His relatives remembered him as an accomplished pilot who had developed a passion for flying following instruction by his father at the age of sixteen.
Rochester Regional Health CEO Richard Davis said in a statement that Dr. Groff was a well-respected neurosurgeon and physician leader who was known for his clinical excellence, compassionate care, and unwavering dedication to improving the field of neuroscience.
Our thoughts and prayers are still with everyone who was affected by this terrible event.