Husband and wife from Long Island killed when plane crashes in Boston suburb

ByEyewitness News WABC logo
Monday, September 17, 2018
Husband and wife from Long Island killed when plane crashes in Boston suburb
Kristin Thorne reports on the Long Island couple killed in a plane crash near Boston.

WOBURN, Massachusetts (WABC) -- Massachusetts authorities have confirmed that two people killed in a small plane crash are a husband and wife from Long Island

The single engine plane crashed around 11 a.m. Saturday in a residential neighborhood in Woburn, near Boston.

Officials identified the victims as 65-year-old Dr. Michael Graver and 52-year-old Jodi Cohen, of Manhasset.

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan describes Graver was a "very experienced pilot" who co-owned the 2016 plane.

She says the couple departed from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York, at around 9:30 a.m. and had been heading to Laurence G. Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts.

The airport is about four miles from the crash site.

Ed D'Ambrosio, senior manager at Douglas Elliman, hired Cohen five years ago to work in the Manhasset office of Douglas Elliman.

"She really cared about the people she worked with, the people, her family, she cared about her clients," he said.

Graver was recently ranked one of the top four cardiac surgeons in New York state in terms of having successful outcomes. He was one of the busiest surgeons at North Shore University Hospital and had several surgeries scheduled for this week.

"He knew a lot about a lot," said David Brody, vice-president of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Northwell Health. "You could talk to him about anything, and we're going to miss him a lot."

Woburn Mayor Scott Galvin says the plane fortunately did not hit any homes or injure anyone on the ground.

The National Transportation Safety Board and other agencies are investigating.

Graver was a cardiothoracic surgeon at North Shore University Hospital.

"(Dr. Graver) was an outstanding surgeon and a great guy," said Dr. Alan Hartman, senior vice president of cardiothoracic services at Northwell Health.

Hartman told the Boston Globe that Graver often took colleagues on flying trips to other states.

"It was not so much where they were going but the fun in getting there," he said.

He said the couple had gone to Massachusetts to meet their son, who was there for a conference.

(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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