Tragedy Strikes as Former MIT Soccer Star and Family Perish in Plane Crash

Karenna Groff, a celebrated former MIT soccer athlete and recognized as the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year, tragically lost her life in a plane crash in upstate New York on Saturday. She was among seven individuals who perished, including several family members.

The crash occurred shortly after noon when a twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B plunged into a muddy field in Copake, New York, near the Massachusetts border, killing everyone aboard. This information was confirmed by authorities and a family member speaking with The Associated Press.

Moments before the disaster, the pilot communicated with Columbia County Airport’s air traffic control, indicating he had missed his first approach and requested a new one. As air traffic controllers coordinated new directions, they tried to send a low altitude warning three times without any acknowledgment from the pilot, who made no distress call, according to the National Transportation Safety Board’s (NTSB) briefing on Sunday.

Investigators have reviewed video footage of the plane’s final moments, which “appears to show that the aircraft was intact” before plummeting into the ground “at a high rate of descent,” shared NTSB official Todd Inman during a press briefing.

Victims included Karenna Groff; her father, Dr. Michael Groff, a prominent neuroscientist; her mother, Dr. Joy Saini, a skilled urogynecologist; her brother, Jared Groff, a 2022 Swarthmore College graduate and paralegal; Alexia Couyutas Duarte, Jared’s partner, also a Swarthmore alumna who was set to attend Harvard Law School in the fall; and Karenna’s boyfriend, James Santoro, a recent MIT graduate as well. This was confirmed by a family statement on Sunday.

John Santoro, father of James Santoro, recounted to the AP how his son first met Karenna during their freshman year at MIT. Karenna, hailing from Weston, Massachusetts, was an All-American soccer star with a focus on biomedical engineering, while Santoro, a math major from New Jersey, pursued lacrosse at the university.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Groff co-founded openPPE, an initiative to develop innovative mask designs for essential personnel. Her outstanding contributions on and off the soccer field earned her the esteemed NCAA Woman of the Year accolade in 2022.

“It’s truly a reflection of my MIT women’s soccer family and the endless support, guidance, and camaraderie they’ve given me throughout the years,” Groff affirmed during an interview.

Post-graduation, Groff and Santoro relocated to Manhattan, with Groff enrolling at New York University’s medical school and Santoro taking on a role as an investment associate at Silver Point, a hedge fund in Greenwich, Connecticut.

On Saturday morning, the family embarked from Westchester County Airport in White Plains on Michael Groff’s private aircraft, scheduled to land at Columbia County Airport but tragically went down about 10 miles south of their destination. The plane was “compressed, buckled, and embedded into the terrain” of an agricultural field soaked in mud, as described by Inman.

The aircraft was operating under instrument flight rules and, although weather conditions potentially affecting visibility were cited, the investigation is still in its early stages, Inman noted.

Having been sold the previous year, the plane boasted an upgraded cockpit, fitted with modern technology conforming to Federal Aviation Administration standards, the NTSB reported.

Authorities anticipate working on-site to investigate the crash for approximately a week, while a comprehensive accident report might take between 12 to 24 months to finalize, Inman said.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.