Family of doctors and student athletes confirmed to be amongst those killed in plane crash
Poppy Bilderbeck
Featured Image Credit: Fox Weather/WRGB
Those involved in a private plane crash in New York have been publicly identified.
On Saturday (April 12), six people took off in a private plane - twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B - from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, a suburb of New York City, set to land at Columbia County Airport.
The six onboard have since been publicly identified as urogynecologist Dr Joy Saini and her partner neuroscientist Dr Michael Groff, Associated Press reports.
Alongside Dr Saini and Dr Groff's daughter, former MIT soccer player Karenna Groff - who was named the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year - was her boyfriend James Santoro, another recent MIT graduate, alongside her brother Jared Groff - a 2022 graduate of Swarthmore College who worked as a paralegal - and his partner Alexia Couyutas Duarte - who graduated Swarthmore and planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall.
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The family were reportedly taking a trip to the Catskills for a birthday celebration and the Passover holiday.
An approved release by the Groff, Santoro and Duarte families reads: "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved family members. We will remember them as the six brilliant, dynamic, and loving people that they were."
James' father, John Santoro, told the Associated Press: "They were a wonderful family. 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."
Meanwhile, Michael's family said, as quoted by Times Union, he was 'an experienced pilot, who fell in love with flying after being taught by his father at the age of sixteen'.
In a statement, Rochester Regional Health CEO Richard Davis said: "Dr. Groff was a highly respected neurosurgeon and physician leader, known for his clinical excellence, compassionate care and unwavering commitment to advancing the the field of neuroscience."
An investigation into the incident remains underway.
NTSB investigator Albert Nixon said at a news conference last night that the pilot of the plane missed an approach at the landing airport and requested instructions to make another approach.
However, the air traffic control radar 'indicated a low altitude alert' and despite the air traffic controller attempting to tell the pilot this not just one but an 'additional three times' they were 'unsuccessful'.
Video footage of the crash 'appear[ed] to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground' at around 12:06 p.m.
Inman added: "In regard to visibility, weather will be one of many different (things) we will look at."
NTSB investigators are reported as remaining at the scene for around a week, with it taking around 30 days for a preliminary report and 12 to 24 months for a full investigative report.
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