An experimental aircraft pilot, his fiancée and an MIT graduate friend were among four people killed when a homemade plane crashed in California.
Lochie Ferrier, Cassidy Petit and Emma Willmer-Shiles, 27, were named Tuesday as victims of Sunday's accident in Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco.
Willmer-Shiles' body was recovered while rescuers continued to search for the other three people. A fourth person on the flight had yet to be named by police.
Horrifying footage showed parts of the wreckage of the Cozy Mark IV – a four-seat light aircraft that can be built from a kit – washed up on the rocks this week.
Lochie Ferrier, Cassidy Petit (pictured together) and Emma Willmer-Shiles were named on Tuesday as victims of Sunday's accident in Half Moon Bay, near San Francisco
Emma Willmer-Shiles, pictured. Her body was recovered while rescuers continued to search for the other three people. A fourth person on the flight had yet to be named by police
Horrifying footage showed parts of the wreckage of the Cozy Mark IV – a four-seat light aircraft that can be built from a kit – washed up on the rocks this week
Ferrier, well known in the “experimental aircraft” community, graduated from MIT with an aeronautical engineering degree in 2019 and worked at Beta Technologies – an electric aircraft company.
He moved to California to work at Magpie Aviation in Hayward, which specializes in electric aircraft.
On October 1, he announced his engagement to Cassidy Petit, a venture capitalist at RH Capital who specializes in reproductive and maternal health – Ferrier proposed to him while vacationing in Baja California.
The couple shared a love of the great outdoors and their social media was filled with scenes of climbing, surfing, snorkeling, hiking and skiing.
Her last Instagram post on January 1 was an engagement photo taken against the snow-capped mountains of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.
Ferrier, well known in the “experimental aircraft” community, graduated from MIT with an aeronautical engineering degree in 2019 and worked at Beta Technologies – an electric aircraft company
He moved to California to work at Magpie Aviation in Hayward, which specializes in electric aircraft
The third passenger was 27-year-old Willmer-Shiles, known as Pearl, who graduated from MIT a year before Ferrier.
The fourth person on board was not named. The plane took off from Hayward and toured the bay Sunday before landing in Half Moon Bay at 5:04 p.m.
It remained on the ground for two hours, then took off again from Half Moon Bay and crashed shortly afterwards.
Witnesses at Moss Beach Distillery told NBC Bay Area they saw the plane flying “erratically” before losing sight of it.
They also said they heard what sounded like a sputtering engine noise.
“They heard the engine sputtering and kept an eye on the aircraft until they lost sight of it just over the horizon,” said Sgt. Philip Hallworth of the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office.
“This triggered a search and rescue operation by the sheriff's office and the Coast Guard.” Crews are still searching for some bodies and remains from the plane.
The fourth person on board was not named. The plane took off from Hayward and toured the bay Sunday before landing in Half Moon Bay at 5:04 p.m. It remained on the ground for two hours, then took off again from Half Moon Bay and crashed shortly afterwards
The Coast Guard said a helicopter and boat crew searched for victims in a 28-square-mile area for nearly six hours on Monday before calling off the search around midmorning.
Hours later, a woman's body was discovered floating in the water by the crew of a commercial fishing boat, the sheriff's office said in a statement.
The unorthodox nature of the aircraft makes an investigation more complicated.
“The plane itself has no flight data or cockpit voice recorders because it is such a small, light aircraft,” said Scott Miller, a pilot and instructor at San Jose State University.
He told KTVU, “If there was some sort of mechanical failure, the debris would certainly indicate that.”
“Kit aircraft are flown every day of the week.” “Sometimes it’s a little harder to follow the history of these types of aircraft.”
The NTSB said a preliminary report on the crash will be completed in two to three weeks.
It takes between one and two years to create a cause of damage report. The Federal Aviation Administration is also involved in the investigation.