New Jersey plane crash victims include man who went to space
NEWTON, N.J. – A New York Metropolis man who joined actor William Shatner on a visit to area final month and the proprietor and head teacher of Fischer Aviation, a family-run flight faculty, have been recognized because the two people killed in a plane crash in Northern New Jersey on Thursday, state police mentioned.
Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of the Jefferson portion of Lake Hopatcong, a second generation flight instructor, was killed together with Glen M. de Vries, 49, of New York Metropolis, in keeping with Trooper Brandi Slota, a New Jersey State police spokesperson.
de Vries started his personal pilot coaching with Fischer in February 2016, according to the Fischer Aviation website.
The Carnegie Mellon trustee and founding father of Medidata Options, a tech firm, de Vries traveled into space on Oct. 13 aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft, fulfilling an apparent life-long dream.
A name to the flight faculty for touch upon Thursday was instantly transferred to Fischer’s voicemail.
The Federal Aviation Administration alerted public security authorities round 3 p.m. that the single-engine Cessna 172 went lacking close to Kemah Lake. Emergency crews discovered the wreckage round 4 p.m.
Police mentioned the plane was on its solution to Sussex Airport from Essex County Airport in Caldwell.
Maria Njoku, a spokesperson for the FAA, mentioned Friday a preliminary report on investigators’ findings of why the aircraft might have crashed might be launched in roughly per week.
The plane was “destroyed” within the crash, which occurred “underneath unknown circumstances,” an preliminary report by the FAA states.
The unusually quiet Kemah Lake group was an energetic scene Thursday night, as native firefighters used UTVs to help authorities into an illuminated tract of the closely wooded Bear Swamp Wildlife Administration Space off Fenner Street.
The FAA and the Nationwide Transportation Security Board are investigating.
Observe Lori Comstock on Twitter: @LoriComstockNJH