Punjab-born surgeon, 3 family members killed in US plane crash

New York, April 14 (IANS) A Punjab-born surgeon, her two children and their partners were killed along with her husband, who piloted a small plane that crashed in New York state.

Joy Saini's family confirmed their deaths in a statement to the media on Sunday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Albert Nixon said on Sunday that the crash happened on Saturday while their Mitsubishi MU2B aircraft was trying to land at the Columbia County Airport, about 200 km from New York City.

Speaking at a news conference in Albany, he said that the pilot missed the approach for landing and asked to make another try, but the air traffic controller noticed it was flying at a low altitude and unsuccessfully tried to alert the pilot.

The plane, which had taken off from Westchester Airport in a New York City suburb, went down about ten miles from the airport near the border with Massachusetts State.

Saini immigrated to the US with her parents and received her medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh where she met her husband, Michael Groff, who was a neurosurgeon.

According to the website of her medical practice in Boston, Saini was a urogynecologist and female pelvic reconstructive surgeon.

The family statement said that Groff was "an experienced pilot who fell in love with flying after being taught by his father at the age of 16."

Their daughter Karenna Groff was a medical student, and her partner James Santoro, an investment banker who planned to propose marriage soon, died in the crash, the family statement said.

Jared Groff, their son, and his partner, Alexia Couyutas Duarte, a law student, were also killed.

Saini and Groff are survived by another daughter of the couple, Anika, and Saini's mother, Kuljit Singh, according to the family.

This was the second crash in the US in three days.

This incident follows Friday's crash in South Florida, where a Cessna 310 aircraft went down near Boca Raton, killing all three people onboard.

A sightseeing helicopter with a family of five from Spain crashed in the Hudson River off Manhattan on Thursday, killing them and the pilot.

--IANS

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