Plane crashes in New York, six feared dead
Plane crashes in New York, six feared dead
Seven persons have been feared dead, following a small plane which crashed in New York state on Sunday, authorities said on Saturday.
US media reported that there were no survivors as the New York Times reported that all six people on board were dead, citing a family member.
The victims were Michael Groff, the pilot and a neurosurgeon, his surgeon wife Joy Saini, their two children and the children’s partners, the New York Times said.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating a “fatal crash” in Copake, eastern New York, official Todd Inman told reporters on Sunday, without specifying the number of deaths.
The Mitsubishi MU2B40 aircraft crashed into a field 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the local Columbia County airport shortly after noon on Saturday, Inman said.
The group had been traveling to a 25th birthday party and a Passover gathering, it added.
Inman said the aircraft was intact as it came down, before it “compressed, buckled and embedded into the terrain” from the force of the impact.
“During the approach at Columbia County Airport, the pilot reported a missed approach (and) he requested vectors for another approach,” he said.
Visibility was falling before the crash happened, Inman said.
The experienced pilot recently updated the aircraft’s cockpit.
The incident is the latest in a string of aviation disasters in recent days, coming after a helicopter plummeted into the Hudson River last week, killing six people.
In January, 67 people died in a collision between a military helicopter and a passenger jet in Washington in January.
A light aircraft crashed after it departed Boca Raton Airport in Florida on Friday. Local media reported that a mechanical issue caused the crash, killing three people.
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Plane crashes in New York, six feared dead