Here’s what we know about the victims.

To those who knew her, Karenna J. Groff was a “dynamo.”

While starting for MIT’s soccer team for four years, Groff also worked with Dr. Mustafa Sahin at Boston Children’s Hospital, searching for a genetic understanding — and possible cures — for epilepsy.

In her fifth year at the lab, Groff, who grew up in Weston, earned her master’s degree and completed her dissertation. Based on her dissertation, a paper on which she was the lead author was submitted last week for publication in a scientific journal.

“She was someone that was brilliant as a student,” Sahin said. “She had this incredible work ethic of testing and retesting things until she convinced herself of the validity of her results. So if you got some data from her you knew it was something could count on … She had a real passion for scientific inquiry so it was easy to see the potential that she had.”

Groff was chosen as the 2022 NCAA Woman of the Year, the highest honor from the college athletic association for her on-field and off-field career at MIT.

She followed her academic successes at MIT with admission to New York University Medical School’s highly selective program for accelerated study in neuroscience.

Dr. E. Antonio Chiocca, who worked with her Groff’s father, Dr. Michael Groff, at Mass General Brigham, said the NYU program pays for medical school and guarantees training as a resident if the student can handle the academic challenge. Karenna Groff had succeeded once again and was scheduled to begin residency in neurosurgery — the same medical field as her father — this summer, he said.

“She was a dynamo,” said Chiocca, who got to know Karenna while she attended Weston High School and spent time with his children. “She was always on the go …. It just came natural to her. [Her father] knew that she was going to go places. … She wanted to be a neurosurgeon like her dad.”

Michael W. Groff was at ease in the operating room and when operating the controls of planes, according to relatives, a colleague, and federal records.

The statement said Groff was an experienced pilot who fell in love with flying after his father taught him how when he was 16.

It appears Groff was piloting the Mitsubishi twin engine aircraft when it crashed in rural New York State on Saturday, according to a profile of the pilot outlined by the NTSB on Sunday.

“He was a great pilot. I mean, I’ve been on planes with him,” said Chiocca. “He started flying when he was a teenager that flew planes. His dad flew planes … I just can’t imagine that he could even get into a crash.”

Chiocca also knew Groff in the operating room. Chiocca is chair of neurosurgery at Mass General Brigham where Groff was vice chair until last summer. They started working together in 2011, he said.

“We like to say he was a doctor’s doctor,” Chiocca said. ”Just a consummate, consummate technical surgeon.”

Groff wanted to take on a leadership role and last summer joined Rochester Regional Health as executive medical director of neurosciences in the nine-hospital organization.

He was also studying for an executive MBA at MIT’s Sloan School of Management, the university said.

He graduated in 1993 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine where met Dr. Jyot Saini, who became his wife and the mother of their three children. She was known as Joy.

Groff underwent further training at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York in neurological surgery and then at the Medical School of Wisconsin, according to the Board of Registration in Medicine.

Groff was also a member of a national medical group for neuroscience, which allowed him to develop friendships across his field.

“He was very well thought of, highly regarded by people around the country,” Chiocca said.

Chiocca said he met all of the Groff family over the years.

“Just a really nice guy, great family man,” he said. “Just an amazing individual. Just really a great loss for all of us. This is tragic.”

Karenna Groff’s mother, Joy Saini, was born in Punjab, India, and immigrated to the United States with her parents, according to a family statement.

Saini went on to become an accomplished pelvic surgeon and the founder of Boston Pelvic Health and Wellness, the family said.

Saini trained in medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where she met Michael Groff, the statement said.

Karenna’s brother, Jared Groff, graduated from Swarthmore College in 2022 and worked as a paralegal, according to a family statement.

Groff studied economics and political science at Swarthmore and worked at DW Partners in New York. He was weighing law school acceptances for the fall, the statement said.

James Santoro, Karenna Groff’s boyfriend, was also a recent MIT graduate, earning a bachelor’s degree in finance in 2022. They met when they were MIT freshmen, and Santoro planned to propose to Groff this summer, his father, John Santoro, told the Associated Press.

“They were a wonderful family,” he told the AP. “The world lost a lot of very good people who were going to do a lot of good for the world if they had the opportunity. We’re all personally devastated.”

James’s mother, Lisa Santoro, said he had recently bought an engagement ring for Groff.

Santoro grew up in Tewksbury, N.J., and was a graduate of the Delbarton School, John Santoro said.

James was a joyful son who was “determined to become a good man,” which he succeeded in, his mother said.

“He loved deeply, laughed easily, and lived life to the fullest. Nothing was better than being enveloped in one of his big hugs. Nothing will be better than being his mother,” Lisa said in an email statement.

His sister, Caroline Santoro, who lives and works in New York City, said James was a loving older brother.

“I loved James from the moment I was born, I loved growing up with him, and I will spend the rest of my life loving him and living in his memory,” Caroline, 23, said in an email.

Alexia Couyutas Duarte, Jared Groff’s partner, also graduated Swarthmore and planned to attend Harvard Law School this fall.

Alexia Couyutas Duarte had lived with the Groff family for the past year in Weston, and loved being in the Boston area, her sister Maria Claudia Couyutas Duarte said.

Alexia had long dreamt of studying at Harvard Law School, and attended an admitted students event the day before the plane crash, her sister said. Alexia hoped to one day become a judge.

“If you think about it, it was almost like she was living her perfect life,” said Maria Claudia, 30, who lives in Orlando, Fla.

Alexia was 24 and one of four siblings raised by a single mother in Miami, her sister said.

“My sister was all about paying tribute to my mom’s hard work and really using everything, all the resources she had, to her advantage to be the best she could be,” her sister said. “We always say here at home that she wanted to eat the world up.”

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

John R. Ellement can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Claire Thornton can be reached at [email protected]. Follow Claire on X @claire_thornto. Nick Stoico can be reached at [email protected].