A private plane crash in Copake, New York, has left six people dead, including a distinguished collegiate athlete.
Former MIT soccer player Karenna Groff was killed in the Saturday, April 12, crash along with her father, neuroscientist Dr. Michael Groff, her mother, urogynecologist Dr. Joy Saini, and her brother, paralegal Jared Groff. Other victims included Jared’s partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte, and Karnenna’s boyfriend, fellow MIT graduate James Santoro, per the Associated Press.
“They were a wonderful family,” James’ father, John Santoro, said in a statement to the AP. “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.”
The family was set to celebrate a birthday and Passover in the Catskills before their twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B, owned by Michael, crashed in a muddy field on Saturday. According to the AP, the pilot of the private plane requested a new approach plan, did not respond to air traffic controllers’ low altitude alerts and did not share a distress call.
Todd Inman, an official for the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters on Sunday, April 13, that footage of the plane’s final seconds “appears to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground,” per the AP.
Karenna earned a bachelor of science degree in biological engineering from MIT in 2022 and her master’s in biomedical engineering the following year, per her LinkedIn profile. At the time of her death, Karenna was studying to earn her doctorate in medicine from NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine.
During her studies, Karenna cofounded openPPE, which helped create a new type of face mask for essential workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also cofounded the MIT Slums & Informational Settlements Research Group (MIT SIS) in 2021, which “engages in qualitative participatory research with slum dwellers and other development actors,” per the organization’s website.
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Her accomplishments on and off the soccer field earned her the title of NCAA’s 2022 Woman of the Year. “I just completely did not expect to win, so I didn’t know what I would go up and say,” she said in a January 2023 interview with MIT Athletics. “I was just completely overwhelmed with being grateful and just appreciative of everything I’ve been lucky enough to do at MIT, which has made me a collegiate athlete and everything I am.”
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John, the father of Karenna’s boyfriend, told the AP that the couple met during their freshman year at MIT, as his son James was a math major and played lacrosse for the school. After graduation, the pair moved to New York City as Karenna began medical school and James began a job at the hedge fund Silver Point.
John told the outlet that funeral arrangements for the crash victims are currently underway. He went on to mourn the loss of his son, stating, “The 25 years we had with James were the best years of our lives, and the joy and the love he brought us will be enough to last a lifetime.”
