Mass. family of doctors, NCAA woman of the year mourned after small plane crash

Tragedy struck a distinguished Massachusetts family and two others this week when a private plane carrying six people crashed in upstate New York on Saturday, killing all on board.

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.

"They were both very successful but they really were just young, happy people who loved each other and loved their relationships," he told NBC10 Boston of his son and his girlfriend, Karenna, who had reached the national stage as the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, while still an MIT undergraduate, Karenna Groff co-founded openPPE, helping to create a new design of masks for essential workers. In 2023, she received the prestigious NCAA woman of the year award for the previous year for her on- and off-field accomplishments.

"Really, this recognition is a testament to my MIT women's soccer family and all of the guidance, support, and friendship they have provided for me over the years," she said in an interview with the university at the time.

Karenna would get to throw out the first pitch at a Boston Red Sox game.

Paul Rutherford/Getty Images, File

Paul Rutherford/Getty Images, File

Her father was following in her footsteps at MIT at the time of the crash, the university confirmed. Already a prominent neuroscientist, Dr. Michael Groff was getting an executive MBA at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

He 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."

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.

Karenna and Santoro met at MIT, Santoro's father said. The school offered its "deepest condolences" to the families and friends, and noted it has resources for members of its community affected by the deaths.

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.

Santoro said the group was flying to New York's Catskills to celebrate Karenna's birthday as well as Passover.

The twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B went down shortly after noon Saturday in a muddy field in Copake, New York, near Massachusetts, according to the National Transportation Safety Board. Shortly before the crash, the pilot had radioed air traffic control at Columbia County Airport to say he had missed the initial approach and requested a new approach plan, but the air traffic controllers didn't hear back when they attempted to relay a low altitude alert three times.

Investigators obtained video of the final seconds of the flight, 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 Sunday.

"They were a wonderful family," 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."

AP

AP

The Associated Press contributed to this report.