Former MIT soccer player Karena Groff who was named the 2022 NCAA woman of the year died in a plane crash along with six other people including her family members in upstate New York on Saturday. After they were identified, it has been revealed that they were all flying to New York’s Catskills to celebrate Karenna’s 25th birthday and also Passover.
The twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B went down shortly after noon in a muddy field in Copake, New York, near Massachussets. Shortly before the crash, the pilot had radioed the air traffic control at Columbia County Airport informing that he had missed the initial approach and requested a new approach plan. The air traffic controllers said that they did not hear back when they relayed a low altitude alert three times, making it clear that the plane had gone out of control by that time.
The investigators said the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground.
A family of doctors and high-achievers
Karenna’s father neuroscientist Michael Groff, mother urologist Joy Saini, Karenna’s boyfriend James Sontoro, Karenna’s brother Jared Groff, his partner Alexia Couyutas Durate were all killed in the crash. Karenna’s sister Anika was not on the plane.
Karenna was studying medicine at New York University following in the footsteps of her parents apart from pursuing excellence in soccer. Her partner was also an MIT graduate and was working in finance.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, while still an MIT undergraduate, Karenna co-founded openPPE, helping to create a new design of masks for essential workers.
“They were a wonderful family,” James’ father John Santoro told The Associated Press. “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.”
