Six people were on board a small plane that crashed into a field in upstate New York on Saturday afternoon, April 12, 2025. The aircraft, a twin-engine turboprop Mitsubishi MU-2B, went down near the town of Copake around 12:15 p.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The plane was headed to Columbia County Airport in Hudson, New York, when it lost contact shortly after takeoff.
Copake is situated about 50 miles south of Albany, near the Massachusetts border. As local authorities responded to the scene, they confirmed that the crash was fatal, although they did not immediately release the number of deaths or the identities of those on board, citing the need for family notifications. Undersheriff Jacqueline Salvatore of the Columbia County Sheriff's Office indicated that muddy conditions in the field where the plane crashed made accessing the scene particularly challenging.
According to a statement from the FAA, the plane was registered to a company based outside Boston and had departed from Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York, shortly after 11:30 a.m. It was tracked flying north toward Hudson before it turned east around noon, just minutes before it disappeared from radar.
Salvatore reported that the crash occurred near Two Town Road and that no structures were damaged by the incident. "It’s in the middle of a field and it’s pretty muddy, so accessibility is difficult," she said during a news conference. At the time of the crash, weather conditions were relatively mild, with overcast skies and wind gusts reaching up to 26 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is leading the investigation into the crash and has dispatched a go-team to the site. Team members were expected to arrive in New York on Saturday night. The NTSB confirmed that they would conduct a thorough investigation to determine the cause of the accident.
This tragic event follows another aviation incident earlier on the same day. A Cessna 560XL experienced a hard landing and subsequently slid off the end of the runway at Crossville Memorial Airport in Crossville, Tennessee, around 8:15 a.m. local time. Five people were on board that aircraft, but no injuries or fatalities have been reported from that incident.
Furthermore, just days prior, a Bell 206 L-4 helicopter crashed into the Hudson River in Jersey City, New Jersey, on Thursday, April 10, 2025, resulting in the deaths of all six individuals on board. Among the victims were a family visiting from Spain, including Siemens executive Agustin Escobar, his wife Mercè Camprubí Montal, and their three young children, who were recovered from the water by divers.
The investigation into the Copake plane crash will take time, but local law enforcement officials are also interviewing witnesses and gathering more information about the circumstances leading up to the crash. As the community grapples with the aftermath of this incident, authorities are urging anyone with information to come forward.
In the wake of these accidents, concerns about aviation safety continue to rise. The FAA and NTSB are under increasing pressure to ensure that not only are investigations conducted thoroughly, but that preventative measures are put in place to avert similar tragedies in the future.
As the investigation unfolds, the families of those involved in the Copake crash are left to cope with their loss, and the community is reminded of the fragility of life and the unpredictability of aviation travel. The NTSB's findings will be crucial in understanding what went wrong and how to prevent such incidents moving forward.
Authorities are expected to provide further updates as more information becomes available, including the identities of those on board the Mitsubishi MU-2B and the results of the ongoing investigations.
