A plane carrying six people crashed in an open field near Copake, N.Y., Saturday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
At least one person was killed, Columbia County Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore said in a news conference Saturday afternoon, but could not specify how many other passengers survived. The National Transportation Safety Board said at a news conference on a Sunday all six people were removed from the scene and nobody has been hospitalized.
NTSB officials, who are leading the investigation on the crash, wouldn’t directly confirm the fatalities and referred to local authorities.
The passengers were family members and partners coming in for a holiday celebration, according to the NTSB.
Officials did not publicly name the victims, but a statement from the family identified the deceased as Karenna Groff, her father, Michael Groff; James Santoro, Karenna Groff’s partner; Jared Groff, Karenna Groff’s brother; Alexia Couyutas Duarte, Jared Groff’s oartner; and Joy Saini, Michael Groff’s wife and the mother of Karenna and Jared Groff.
Saini was “an accomplished pelvic surgeon and the founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness,” according to the family. Michael Groff was a neurosurgeon and, the family statement also noted, “an experienced pilot, who fell in love with flying after being taught by his father at the age of sixteen.”
Karenna Groff was a soccer player at MIT and had been named the NCAA woman of the year in 2022. She earned a bachelor’s degree in biological engineering in 2022 and a master’s of engineering in biological engineering the following year, the school said. At the time of her death, she was enrolled at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine
“Karenna demonstrated exceptional skill and unwavering passion towards the care of patients and the mission of our institution. We will remember her for her warmth, her grace, her kindness, her outstanding accomplishments, and the pure joy she brought to our community,” an NYU spokesperson said.
According to a video obtained by the NTSB, the aircraft was intact before it crashed at a high rate of descent. The pilot had received a low altitude alert and air traffic control attempted to contact the pilot several times, NTSB officials said Sunday, but there was no response and no distress call.
The plane did not hit any structures on the way down, Salvatore told reporters, and the crash site is difficult to access because of muddy conditions. It was unclear what had caused the plane to crash, Salvatore said the day before investigators arrived.
Officials from the sheriff’s office, New York State Police, and a local fire department assisted after a 911 call came in around noon.
The Mitsubishi MU-2B-40 was flying to the Columbia County Airport in Hudson, N.Y., the FAA noted.
Data from the tracking site FlightAware shows the same model plane take off from Westchester County Airport just after 11:30 a.m., with a 12:06 p.m. scheduled landing time. The flight path stops short of the airport after turning east.
