‘Unimaginable loss': Mass. community mourns family members killed in NY plane crash

A Massachusetts family is being mourned after a plane crash over the weekend in upstate New York left all six who were onboard dead — and administrators at Weston's school district say a family member who was not onboard is a current student at the town's high school.

Four of the six were members of the Groff-Saini family, from Weston: Dr. Michael Groff and Dr. Joy Saini and their children Karenna and Jared. Also aboard were Karenna's boyfriend, James Santoro, and Jared's partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte, according to Santoro's father, John Santoro.

Weston Public Schools superintendent Dr. Karen Zalenski and Weston High School principal Sue Bairstow issued a letter to the community on Sunday.

"Two of our graduates, Karenna Groff (2018) and Jarad Groff (2017), their parents, and several friends were killed in a small plane crash in New York yesterday," the letter said. "Their lives ended far too soon, and our hearts are with all those who are grieving this unimaginable and sudden loss."

The school district is making counselors available for students, and is providing staff with guidance to help them with students who may have questions.

Administrators also wrote that one family member who was not on the plane is a current student at Weston High School.

"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," the letter said. "Our role as a school community is to surround them with quiet care, compassion, and space to heal."

"I just wish I could give her a big hug and say, you know 'Your dad, your mom, they're all just wonderful people," said Kathy Nelson, a retired Brigham and Women's nurse who knows the Groff family.

Karenna Groff and Santoro both graduated from MIT, where they were star athletes.

Karenna was a former MIT soccer player named the 2022 NCAA woman of the year, while Santoro was a 2022 MIT grad who played lacrosse at the school.

Santoro’s father tells NBC10 Boston that they were flying to the Catskills to celebrate Karenna’s 25th birthday.

"They were both very successful but they really were just young, happy people who loved each other and loved their relationships," John Santoro told NBC10 Boston of his son and his girlfriend.

Investigators say the pilot had radioed to air traffic control while attempting to land, reporting a missed approach.

ATC tried to relay a low altitude alert three times, but there was no response from the pilot and no distress call.

Officials say the twin engine aircraft was intact when it crashed at a high rate of speed into an agricultural field in upstate New York, just miles from the Massachusetts border.

The NTSB is investigating the crash.

Dr. Michael Groff led the neurosurgery spine division at Brigham and Women's Hospital from 2011 until last year, when he began transitioning to Rochester Regional Health, as the executive medical director of neuroscience. In an email to colleagues, a Brigham executive called him "a compassionate, highly skilled and charismatic human being and neurosurgeon."

"You felt comfortable, you felt safe, and you felt looked after. You felt cared for," Nelson said. "It's just going to be sad to know that if I needed to see him in the future, that he's not going to be there."

Karenna was following in her father's footsteps as well, the email noted, since she'd started a neurosurgery residency, at NYU. Both Groff and her mother Saini, a urogynecologist and reconstructive pelvic surgeon, worked in its medical system.

"Dr. Saini was a wonderful physician, surgeon and person, who provided skilled and compassionate care to her patients," a Newton-Wellesley Hospital official told staff, of which she was a part, in an email.

Jared Groff was a paralegal who graduated Swarthmore College in 2022. Alexia Couyutas Duarte, his partner, also graduated Swarthmore and planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall, according to a family statement.