Glen de Vries was amongst 4 passengers on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on Oct. 13. De Vries, 49, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, died in crash of a single-engine aircraft that went down Thursday in a wooded space of Hampton Township, N.J.
LM Otero/AP
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LM Otero/AP
Glen de Vries was amongst 4 passengers on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket on Oct. 13. De Vries, 49, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, died in crash of a single-engine aircraft that went down Thursday in a wooded space of Hampton Township, N.J.
LM Otero/AP
HAMPTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A person who traveled to space with William Shatner final month was killed together with one other individual when the small aircraft they had been in crashed in a wooded space of northern New Jersey, in response to state police.
The one-time house vacationer Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York Metropolis, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, had been aboard the single-engine Cessna 172 that went down Thursday.
De Vries was an instrument-rated personal pilot, and Fischer owned a flight faculty. Authorities haven’t stated who was piloting the small aircraft.
The aircraft had left Essex County Airport in Caldwell, on the sting of the New York Metropolis space, and was headed to Sussex Airport, in rural northwestern New Jersey, when the Federal Aviation Administration alerted public security companies to search for the lacking aircraft round 3 p.m.
Emergency crews discovered the wreckage in Hampton Township round 4 p.m., the FAA stated.
De Vries, co-founder of a tech firm, took a 10-minute flight to the sting of house Oct. 13 aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft with Shatner and two others.
“It will take me some time to have the ability to describe it. It was unbelievable,” de Vries stated as he bought his Blue Origin “astronaut wings” pinned onto his blue flight swimsuit by Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos.
“We’re devastated to listen to of the sudden passing of Glen de Vries,” Blue Origin tweeted Friday. “He introduced a lot life and vitality to the whole Blue Origin group and to his fellow crewmates. His ardour for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will lengthy be revered and admired.”
De Vries co-founded Medidata Options, a software program firm specializing in medical analysis, and was the vice chair of life sciences and well being care at Dassault Systemes, which acquired Medidata in 2019. He had taken half in an public sale for a seat on the primary flight and purchased a seat on the second journey.
De Vries additionally served on the board of Carnegie Mellon College.
Fischer owned the flight faculty Fischer Aviation and was its chief teacher, in response to the corporate’s web site.
The Nationwide Transportation Security Board is investigating.
