Private plane crashed in the USA: a family of doctors and student athletes died
Kyiv • UNN
A private plane crashed in New York State, killing six people. Among the dead are doctors, outstanding student athletes who were on their way to celebrate a birthday and Easter.
A private plane crashed over the weekend in upstate New York in the United States, carrying six members of a close-knit family of doctors and outstanding student-athletes who were flying to the Catskills for a birthday celebration and Easter holiday. UNN writes about this with reference to AP.
Details
The twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B crashed shortly after noon on Saturday in a muddy field in Copake, killing everyone on board, according to authorities and a family member who spoke to the publication.
Shortly before the crash, the pilot radioed the Columbia County Airport Control Service to report that he had missed the initial approach and requested a new plan for it, officials from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said at a Sunday briefing. While preparing the new coordinates, air traffic controllers tried three times to transmit a low altitude warning, but received no response from the pilot and no distress signal, officials said.
Investigators obtained a video of the last seconds of the flight, which "showed that the plane was intact and crashed at a high rate of fall to the ground," NTSB spokesman Todd Inman told reporters.
Among the dead: former Massachusetts Institute of Technology soccer player, named NCAA Woman of the Year 2022 Karenna Groff; her father, neurobiologist, Dr. Michael Groff; her mother, Dr. Joy Saini, urologist, professor, corresponding member of the National Academy of Sports Medicine of the United States. Joy Saini, urogynecologist; her brother Jared Groff, a 2022 Swarthmore College graduate who worked as a paralegal; Jared Groff's partner, who also graduated from Swarthmore and planned to enter Harvard Law School this fall, Alexia Kuyutas Duarte; Karenna Groff's boyfriend, James Santoro, another recent graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to a Sunday statement from the family.
"They were a wonderful family. The world has lost many very good people who were going to do a lot of good for the world if they had the opportunity. We are all personally devastated," James' father, John Santoro, told AP in an interview.
Details of the tragedy
According to John Santoro, on Saturday morning they headed to Westchester County Airport in White Plains, a suburb of New York, where they boarded Michael Groff's private plane.
They were supposed to land at Columbia County Airport, but crashed about 16 kilometers south. According to Inman, the plane was "compressed, crumpled and buried in the ground" of a muddy agricultural field.
According to him, the pilot was flying under instrument flight rules, not visual flight rules. However, it is too early to say whether the cause of the accident was poor visibility due to weather conditions.
According to the NTSB, the aircraft was sold a year ago and had an upgraded cockpit with the latest technology, which was certified to Federal Aviation Administration standards.
According to Inman, investigators plan to be at the crash site for about a week, and the full accident report may take 12 to 24 months.
According to Santoro, funeral arrangements are currently underway.
"The 25 years we spent with James were the best years of our lives. And the joy and love he gave us will last a lifetime," he added.
Addition
A plane crashed off the coast of Honduras, killing seven people, including musician Aurelio Martinez. Local media reports that the passengers included a U.S. citizen and a French citizen.
At Toronto International Airport, a Delta Airlines plane from Minneapolis crashed during landing. Up to eight people were injured.
