By DAVID LEE
ALBANY—Physician couple, Dr. Michael Groff and Dr. Joy Saini, their adult children, Jared and Karenna and the children’s partners, James Santoro and Alexia Duarte died in the plane crash on Two Town Road in Craryville that killed six people around noon April 12, according to a Times Union newspaper report April 13.
National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) officials said in an April 13 press conference at the Hilton Gardens Inn at 1389 Washington Avenue, Albany, “We have talked to some of the family members. This was a family along with some of the partners of some of the family members that were on board. They had relatives that were in the area so they were attempting to land at the Columbia Airport. They were coming in for a holiday celebration.”
National Transportation Safety Board member Todd Inman and Investigator-in-Charge Albert Nixon spoke at the April 13 press conference at 6 p.m, about the fatal plane crash.
An NTSB “Go Team” arrived in Albany the night of April 12 to begin the investigation into a fatal crash involving a Mitsubishi MU-2B-40 aircraft in Columbia County.
Mr. Inman expressed the NTSB’s “sincere condolences for the survivors of the families and anyone who knew someone that perished in this accident.”
The NTSB is an independent federal agency charged with investigating every civil aviation accident in the United States. They also investigate significant events involving highway rail and maritime.
They issue safety recommendations aimed at preventing future accidents such as this.
Mr. Inman acknowledged Sheriff Donald Krapf, Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore, and Captain Kevin Skype, saying they have been “an amazing partner for us to protect the scene and making sure we have very good evidence and continue to be great asset on this investigation.”
About the crash Mr. Inman recounted: on April 12, at approximately 12:06 EDT a Mitsubishi MU-2B-40 with tail number N635TA crashed 10 miles from the Columbia County Airport. This occurred near State Route 23 and Two Town Road. The flight was being operated as a “Part 91” flight. (Part 91 indicates a variety of private, non-commercial aircraft operations). The aircraft departed the Westchester County Airport, when a crash occurred in a flat agricultural field. The scene is approximately 100 yards in length, with the aircraft being compressed, buckled and embedded into the terrain.
“Now we have obtained a video at this point of the actual crash in the final seconds. The video “appears to show that the aircraft was intact and crashed at a high rate of descent into the ground,” said Mr. Inman.
The NTSB will analyze the facts to determine the probable cause of this accident and then issue a report. Mr. Inman introduced Albert Nixon, who is the investigator-in-charge leading the team that is on the ground now.
Mr. Nixon, who has been with the NTSB for 12 years and has over 30 years of aviation experience and is a certified airline transport pilot, said, “During the approach at the Columbia County Airport the pilot reported a missed approach. He requested vectors for another approach, and as he is being vectored the radar indicated a low altitude alert. The air traffic controller attempted to relay this low altitude alert to the pilot. He also tried to contact him three additional times, but unfortunately he was unsuccessful. There was no response from the pilot, and there was no distress (signal).”
Mr. Inman continued noting that “In addition to our investigators we have on scene, we have one of our specialists that works on our family and survivor assistance. Our lead for that is Max Green. Max has already reached out to the surviving family members, made contact with them and has discussions with them ongoing.”
He said the NTSB held an organizational meeting and established parties to the investigation. These parties are Mitsubishi as the manufacturer of the aircraft, Honeywell which is the manufacturer of the engines, the Federal Aviation Administration and MACTA, the union representing the air traffic controllers. These organizations typically provide technical expertise and relevant information supporting the development of the best possible factual record.
Once these parties joined the NTSB investigation they are not permitted to release documents or talk publicly about the investigation without the consent of the NTSB. The NTSB will be the only party that will brief the media or provide any official updates to the investigation.
Mr. Inman said April 13 was the NTSB’s first full day on the scene and the investigating team will be on the scene for what he expected to be at least a week. Their mission is to understand not just what happened but why it happened and provide recommendations for it not to happen again. “We will not determine the probable cause while we are here on the scene, nor will we speculate about what may have caused this accident.”
The NTSB anticipates having a preliminary report within 30 days, and the full investigative report is anticipated to take 12 to 24 months.
The NTSB only has one video at this time. Mr. Inman asked the public if anyone has any relevant information, witnesses or especially video, door camera to contact them at ntsb.gov. The email address is witness@ntsb.gov.
Mr. Inman said the NTSB does not release names. That is solely left to the county coroner’s office.
It was verified there were six fatalities, six people on board and all six were removed from the scene.
The aircraft had an updated avionics package
The NTSB has no reason to believe the plane was not legally safe to fly and they will be examining the maintenance records.
Responding to a question about if the weather was a factor, Mr. Inman said, “We do know that at the time the flight was operating under what’s called an IFR, meaning Instrument Flight Rules versus visual flight rules. We do know that the ceilings were starting to deteriorate in regard to visibility. That will be one aspect,” he said.
The pilot had been flying for a number of years.
