Boston, MA – In the golden afternoon light that filtered through the Boston skyline, Dr. Joy Saini was often seen striding through hospital corridors with the quiet strength of someone who had faced great odds—and risen above them. A beloved urogynecologist, mentor, mother, and daughter of Punjab, she carried both a scalpel and a story—a journey from the farmlands of India to the operating rooms of America.
That journey came to a tragic end this weekend.
Dr. Saini, her husband Dr. Michael Groff, and four members of their close-knit family were killed when their private Mitsubishi MU2B aircraft crashed while attempting to land at Columbia County Airport in upstate New York. The crash, which occurred Saturday, has left a gaping void in both the Indian-American medical community and the countless lives they touched.
Groff, a respected neurosurgeon and an experienced pilot who learned to fly at 16 from his father, was at the controls.
As investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board pieced together the wreckage strewn across a wooded area near the New York-Massachusetts border, the news sent ripples through Boston’s healthcare community. “She wasn’t just a doctor—she was hope in a white coat,” said a former patient of Saini’s, tears streaming as she laid a flower bouquet at the clinic where Saini worked. “She once told me, ‘We don’t just fix bodies, we rebuild lives.’ That’s what she did for me.”
Saini and Groff met as young medical students at the University of Pittsburgh—a meeting of minds and hearts that soon blossomed into a marriage. Their shared passion for healing lives was rivaled only by their love of the skies. Flying was their weekend escape, a tradition Michael passed down from his own father. “It made him feel free,” said a colleague. “Up there, he said he could leave the worries of the ICU behind.”
But Saturday’s flight turned fatal after Groff missed his initial landing approach. Air traffic controllers noted the plane was flying too low, and while Groff sought to circle back, it was too late.
Candles lit in Boston, Punjab Gurudwara
Among the victims were the couple’s two children—Karenna, a rising star in medical school, and Jared, a bright young man whose heart was set on environmental law. Karenna’s partner, James Santoro, an investment banker reportedly planning a marriage proposal, also perished. Jared’s girlfriend, Alexia Duarte, a law student remembered for her activism and gentle nature, was with him.
The only surviving immediate family members are the couple’s youngest daughter, Anika, and Dr. Saini’s mother, Kuljit Singh, who had once proudly told her neighbors in Punjab, “My daughter fixes women’s lives in America.”
Now, across continents, that same community grieves.
In a world already fatigued by headlines, this one stung deeply. Not just because of who they were—but because of what they represented: the promise of the immigrant dream, the beauty of building something across oceans, the strength of family ties stitched together with ambition, love, and service.
Candles were lit in Boston, Pittsburgh, and even in a small gurdwara in Punjab. A garlanded photo of Dr. Saini rests beside a prayer hall where elders now whisper stories of the girl who once boarded a plane to America with stars in her eyes.
From the sky they loved so dearly, they are gone—but their story remains, a legacy in white coats, textbooks, and hearts forever changed.
