AN Indian origin doctor and her family were among the six people killed in a plane crash in New York on Saturday. The unfortunate incident happened when the twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B, which was carrying a family of physicians and famous student-athletes, crashed in a muddy field near Copake on Saturday afternoon. The family was on a Passover trip to the Catskills. Everyone on board lost their lives in the crash.
The deceased were identified as Dr Joy Saini, an urogynecologist who was born in India, her husband Dr Michael Groff who was a neuroscientist, their daughter Karenna Groff, a former MIT soccer player named the 2022 NCAA woman of the year, their son Jared Groff, a 2022 graduate of Swarthmore College who worked as a paralegal; Jared Groff’s partner Alexia Couyutas Duarte, who also graduated Swarthmore and planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall; and Karenna Groff’s boyfriend James Santoro, another recent MIT graduate.
They all boarded Michael Groff’s private plane from Westchester County Airport on Saturday morning and were supposed to land at Columbia County Airport. Unfortunately, the plane crashed about 10 miles (16 kilometers) to the south, according to media reports.
The National Transportation Safety Board authorities stated that just before the incident, the pilot radioed air traffic control at Columbia County Airport, stating that he had missed the initial approach and requested a new approach plan.
While preparing the new coordinates, air traffic controllers attempted to transmit a low altitude alert thrice, but the pilot didn’t respond and there was no distress call. Later, investigators found the video of the last few 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 said.
The plane was reportedly discovered “compressed, buckled and embedded in the terrain” of a muddy agricultural field.
The pilot was flying under instrument flight rules, rather than visual flight regulations, and the authorities are investigating whether limited visibility due to poor weather conditions played a role in the incident.
The plane was sold a year ago and had an upgraded cockpit with newer technology that met the Federal Aviation Administration standards, according to the NTSB.
Who was Dr Joy Saini?
Dr Joy Saini was reportedly born in Punjab, India, and immigrated to the US with her parents, Kuljit and Gurdev Singh. According to the family statement, she was a renowned pelvic surgeon and the founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness
She studied medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where she met her husband, Michael Groff, who later became a renowned neurosurgeon and skilled pilot.
