A decorated former college athlete and her entire family were among six people killed in a private plane crash in upstate New York. Karenna Groff, a former MIT soccer player named the 2022 NCAA woman of the year, was on board the aircraft when it came down en route to the Catskills for a birthday celebration and the Passover holiday. The twin-engine Mitsubishi MU-2B went down shortly after noon on Saturday in a muddy field in Copake, New York, near the Massachusetts line, killing everyone on board, according to authorities and a family member who spoke to the Associated Press. 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, officials with the National Transportation Safety Board said at a Sunday briefing. While preparing the new coordinates, air traffic controllers attempted to relay a low altitude alert three times, the NTSB officials said. ATC had received no response from the pilot and no distress call. 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 at the briefing. “On behalf of everyone at the NTSB I want to express our sincere condolences for the families and everyone who knew someone that perished in this accident,” Inman said. “We are truly sorry any time anyone has to go through this.” The plane was also carrying Groff’s father, neuroscientist Dr. Michael Groff; her mother, Dr. Joy Saini, a urogynecologist; and her brother, Jared Groff, a 2022 graduate of Swarthmore College who worked as a paralegal. Groff’s boyfriend, James Santoro, another recent MIT graduate, was also on board, as was her brother’s partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte. “They were a wonderful family,” Santoro’s father, John Santoro, told AP. “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.” During the COVID-19 pandemic, 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 at the time. After graduating, Santoro and Groff moved to Manhattan, where Groff enrolled in medical school at New York University and Santoro worked as an investment associate for Silver Point, a hedge fund based in Greenwich, Connecticut. Funeral arrangements are underway, according to Santoro’s father. NTSB investigators expect to be at the crash site for about a week and a full accident report could take between 12 and 24 months to complete, Inman said.