Joe Yates
An investigation into the fatal private plane crash that claimed the lives of six people has revealed the pilot's final moments.
A family of doctors and student athletes, alongside their partners, died after their aircraft collided with a muddy field in Copake, close to the Massachusetts border, in upstate New York, shortly after 12pm Eastern Time, on April 12.
The private plane was owned by Dr Michael Groff, a neuroscientist who was piloting the flight at the time, alongside his wife Dr Joy Saini, a urogynecologist, who was also on board.
Their daughter, former MIT soccer player Karenna Groff - who was named the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year - had accompanied them on the flight alongside her boyfriend, James Santoro, another recent MIT graduate.
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Her brother Jared Groff, a 2022 graduate of Swarthmore College who worked as a paralegal, joined them alongside his partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte - who graduated from Swarthmore and planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall.
The family were reportedly going on a trip to the Catskills for a birthday celebration, which coincided with the Passover holiday.
Now, chilling new details have revealed what happened moments before the collision took place.
Their private aircraft - a Mitsubishi MU-2B-40 - departed Westchester County Airport in White Plains, a suburb of New York, at around 11.34am, a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board states.
It headed on a 'northeast to northern track' to its planned destination of Columbia County Airport in Hudson.
According to the report, at around 11.57am, Dr Groff informed air traffic control that he had missed his slot to the runway, and the controller advised on new instructions for landing - which he acknowledged shortly after 12pm.
Around a minute later, a controller issued a warning to Dr Groff stating that his plane was flying too low, but he never responded.
The report adds: "Despite the controller’s multiple attempts, no further radio transmissions were received from the pilot. About 1203:55, the controller advised the pilot that radar contact was lost."
The plane crashed roughly 10 miles south of the airport, and in a muddy snow-covered field, although the report indicates that there were no significant weather warnings issued for the area at the time.
The report did not provide an exact cause of the crash and noted that the 'information is preliminary and subject to change'.
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, Dr Goff'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 field of neuroscience."
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