Anika Groff lost her parents, neuroscientist Michael Groff and urogynecologist Joy Saini, as well as both of her older siblings, her sister Karenna, and brother Jared, according to a report by Daily Mail.
The other two passengers who were reportedly killed in Saturday’s plane crash in Copake, New York — near the Massachusetts border — were Karenna’s boyfriend, James Santoro, and Jared’s girlfriend, Alexia Couyutas Duarte.
The Weston, Massachusetts, school district, where Karenna and Jared Groff went to school, issued a statement to the community after Saturday’s crash.
“Two of our graduates, Karenna Groff (2018) and Jared Groff (2017), their parents, and several friends were killed in a small plane crash in New York yesterday,” Weston Public Schools said in a statement obtained by Daily Mail.
“Their lives ended far too soon, and our hearts are with all those who are grieving this unimaginable and sudden loss,” the school district added.
Weston Public Schools also noted that one of the Groff family members is still enrolled in a high school in the district, adding, “Out of respect for the family and especially for our student who is grieving the loss of her loved ones, we ask that all members of our community honor their privacy during this deeply personal time.”
“Our role as a school community is to surround them with quiet care, compassion, and space to heal,” the the school district said.
Groff’s sister and her boyfriend were both graduates of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), with Karenna studying medicine at New York University, and James working as an investment associate for Silver Point.
The couple was planning to get engaged this summer, James’ father, John Santoro, told Boston 25 News.
Groff’s brother and his girlfriend were graduates of Swarthmore College — Michael Groff’s alma mater — and both worked as paralegals, with Jared planning to attend law school in the fall, according to a statement from Swarthmore College, obtained by New York Post.
The family took off on Michael Groff’s plane from an airport in White Plains, New York, and was headed to the Catskills for a birthday and Passover celebration, Daily Mail reported.
Officials have not yet revealed who was flying the plane when it crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said that, before the crash, the pilot radioed air traffic control at Columbia County Airport saying he had missed the initial approach and asked for a new approach plan.
But as he prepared the new coordinates, air traffic controllers tried to send him a low altitude alert three times, and never received a response or distress call, NTSB officials said.
Investigators retrieved video footage of the flight’s final seconds in the air, which “appears to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground,” NTSB official Todd Inman told reporters.
In addition to being an experienced pilot, Michael Groff was an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and served as executive director of neuroscience at Rochester Regional Health in New York.
Anika Groff, the only surviving member of her immediate family, reportedly revealed before the plane crash that she would be attending the University of North Carolina this fall.
Alana Mastrangelo is a reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Facebook and X at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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