An Indian origin doctor and her family were among the six people killed when a private plane crashed in upstate New York on Saturday. The twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B, carrying a close-knit family of physicians and distinguished student-athletes on a trip to the Catskills for Passover, went down shortly after noon in a muddy field in Copake, New York, near the Massachusetts line, killing everyone on board.
Victims were identified as India born urogynecologist Dr Joy Saini, her neuroscientist husband Dr Michael Groff, her daughter Karenna Groff, a former MIT soccer player named the 2022 NCAA woman of the year, her son 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.
How The Plane Crash
On Saturday morning, they all boarded Michael Groff's private plane from Westchester County Airport and were set to land at Columbia County Airport but crashed roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the south, according to a report by Associated Press.
Shortly before the crash, the pilot had radioed air traffic control at Columbia County Airport to say he had missed the initial approach and requested a new approach plan, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board said at a Sunday briefing.
While preparing the new coordinates, air traffic controllers attempted to relay a low altitude alert three times, with no response from the pilot and no distress call. Later investigators obtained video of the final seconds of the flight, which "appears to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground," NTSB official Todd Inman told reporters.
The plane was found in "compressed, buckled and embedded in the terrain" of a muddy agricultural field, the AP report said,
The pilot was flying under instrument flight rules, rather than visual flight rules, and authorities are probing if reduced visibility from weather conditions was a factor in the crash.
The plane had been sold a year ago and had an upgraded cockpit with newer technology that was certified to Federal Aviation Administration standards, according to the NTSB.
About Dr Joy Saini
According to Mid Hudson News, Dr Joy Saini was born in Punjab, India and immigrated to the US with her parents, Kuljit and Gurdev Singh. She was an accomplished pelvic surgeon and the founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness, according to the family statement.
She trained in medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where she met her husband, Michael Groff, who became a distinguished neurosurgeon and experienced pilot, the statement said.
Saini and Groff leave behind their daughter, Anika Groff; Michael's parents, Stephen and Gebena Groff; Joy's mother, Kuljit; and siblings Rinne Groff, Yram Groff, and Prashant Saini, along with their extended family.
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