The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to investigate the private plane crash in Columbia County over the weekend that killed six people, saying the aircraft involved was in its second trip of the day and that weather may have played a factor.

Onboard the flight were Karenna Groff, a one-time collegiate soccer star at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and her longtime boyfriend, investment banker James Santoro. They were joined by Karenna’s brother, Jared Groff, 26, a former basketball player at Swarthmore planning his own proposal to his girlfriend Alexia Couyutas Duarte, a 24-year-old Colombia native set to start at Harvard Law School in the fall, and the Groffs’ parents, Dr. Michael Groff and Dr. Joy Saini — each celebrated surgeons.

Todd Inman, of the NTSB, told reporters Monday that the plane had taken off at 9:30 a.m. from Norwood Memorial Airport in Norfolk County, Massachusetts and landed in White Plains at 10:19 a.m. It departed for Columbia County Airport at 11:34 a.m. and crashed about 10 miles from the airport.

“Weather was at that time what we consider to be deteriorating,” Inman said.

Minutes before the landing, officials said, pilot Michael Groff radioed air traffic control at Columbia County Airport to say he had missed the initial approach. As air traffic controllers prepared new coordinates, they attempted to relay a low-altitude warning but received no response. Shortly after noon on Saturday, the twin-engine plane crashed into a muddy field in Copake.

Inman said the aircraft in question, a Mitsubishi MU-2, requires additional training beyond just a normal FAA private pilot license, and the pilot onboard completed all training and inspections necessary in October 2024.

“Our teams have been working around the clock to try to gather this information and put together the facts to help us determine what caused this accident, and of course, help prevent such tragedies from happening again,” Inman said.

Inman said the NTSB has been conducting a full aerial mapping review of the area and has received additional photo and video evidence from the scene.

A team of air traffic control specialists will be conducting interviews over the next week of the Albany crews on duty at the time, and the FAA has brought in an air traffic control manager from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, based on the similar size of the airport.

Crews have pulled a number of pieces of equipment from the wreck and secured multiple memory cards that have been sent to Washington for recorder device downloads.

On site, crews are currently working on extraction of the aircraft itself and wreckage will eventually be moved to a secure site in Massachusetts for further investigating.

The NTSB hopes to have a preliminary report on their investigation out in about 30 days and a final report in 12-18 months.