A SMALL PLANE carrying six people crashed in New York state on Saturday, authorities said, with local reports indicating that there were no survivors.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is investigating a “fatal crash” in Copake, eastern New York, official Todd Inman told reporters yesterday.

The Mitsubishi MU2B40 aircraft crashed into a field 16 kilometers from the local Columbia County airport shortly after noon on Saturday, Inman said.

All six people on board were dead, according to a statement from the family.

Among those on board were celebrated former Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) football player Karenna Groff, her parents and her brother, according to a family statement.

The group had been traveling to a 25th birthday party and a Passover gathering.

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 pilot was experienced and the aircraft’s cockpit was recently updated.

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.