Preliminary report on Copake, N.Y. plane crash will take 30 days, NTSB says
Officials with the NTSB gave an update Monday afternoon on this weekend's deadly plane crash in Copake, N.Y.
The crash scene shows the virtual disintegration of the twin engine Mitsubishi plane.
Authorities said the flight crashed while making its second trip of the day. It originated at 9:30 a.m. Saturday from Norwood Memorial Airport in Massachusetts and landed in White Plains, N.Y. at 10:19 a.m. to pick up passengers. It then left White Plains at 11:34 a.m. heading north into the Hudson Valley, but never made it to its destination at Columbia Airport.
The crash took place while the plane was making a second attempt to land in "deteriorating" weather.
The NTSB said the private pilot had just recently completed the extra training the advanced aircraft required.
"The training was completed and the pilot was proficient. It was completed on October 8th of 2024," Todd Inman of the NTSB said.
The NTSB said it hopes to make a preliminary report on the crash in 30 days, but the final report will take 12-24 months.
The NTSB said they've used a drone to capture an aerial view of the crash scene for analysis. NTSB officials said local law enforcement also provided approximately 1,000 images of the wreckage. Interviews are taking place with air traffic control personnel who were involved with the flight.
"We pulled a number of pieces of equipment from the actual aircraft itself, and these are going to be the avionics that have been upgraded. So we've secured a large number of those. Some of them are damaged. None are in a pristine state, due to the force of the impact, but we do believe that it may be helpful whenever we get them to a laboratory to be able to determine whether they were working," Inman said.
Multiple memory cards were also recovered and have been sent to Washington, D.C. for analysis. The plane's engines will be taken apart by investigators in Phoenix. The wreckage of the plane will ultimately be moved to Massachusetts for a more thorough examination.
Video obtained by the NTSB indicated the plane was intact when it crashed, and that the pilot had been alerted to low altitude. Air traffic control made repeated attempts to contact the pilot but were not successful.
Anyone with any information, including surveillance video or potentially even a piece of debris from the crash, is asked to email witness@NTSB.gov
Who was killed in the plane crash?
Friends and coworkers said all six who died were people of great accomplishment and promise.
Dr. Michael Groff and his wife Dr. Joy Sani were killed in the crash, along with their children and their children's partners. That includes Karenna Groff, a former MIT soccer player once named the NCAA woman of the year, her brother Jared Groff, his partner Alexia Couyutas Duarte and Karenna's boyfriend James Santoro.
Dr. Groff bought the plane in 2024 and used it to commute to Rochester, N.Y., where he ran the neuroscience department at Regional hospital.
"Very dedicated to his profession, to insuring patients got the best possible care," Dr. Robert May of Rochester Regional Health said.
His wife, Dr. Joy Sani, was "an accomplished surgeon dedicated to women's health."
Their daughter Karenna is a former MIT soccer star. NYU Medical School called her a "rising star inside and outside the classroom, with limitless possibilities on the horizon."
"Karenna was a fantastic person, and I think after you met her parents, it became pretty clear where she got it from," John Santoro said. Santoro's son James was expected to get engaged to Karenna this summer.
James Santoro had been a star athlete at Delbarton School in Morristown. The headmaster called him "a remarkable young man in many ways."
Jared Groff was also killed. His teammates at Swarthmore College remembered him as "an intense competitor, a brilliant intellect, and more than words can describe."
Jared's girlfriend Alexia Couyutas Duarte died too. She was remembered as "a first generation American, passionate about immigration law and policy." She was off to Harvard Law School in the fall.
It's a terrible loss for so many, especially Anika Groff, who was not on the plane. She lost her mother, father and two siblings.
