Lochie Ferrier, a NSW man dwelling within the US, has died alongside his fiancee in a lightweight airplane crash in California.
Mr Ferrier was within the pilot seat of his small airplane when it’s believed to have plummeted into coastal rocks at Half Moon Bay close to San Francisco on Sunday evening, in response to native information stories.
An engineer and prolific pilot, Mr Ferrier had proposed to his associate Cassidy Petit simply 4 months earlier than the crash.
Ms Petit was one in every of three passengers on the Cozy MK IV airplane and in addition died when it went down.
Authorities rushed to Half Moon Bay after witnesses reported the airplane had begun flying erratically.
The Coast Guard launched drones in addition to a search diver, discovering the small airplane within the water with out passengers an hour and a half after it went down.
“There’s a airplane within the water, it was made identified to me that the airplane was truly upside-down within the water,” sergeant Philip Hallworth from San Mateo County Sheriff’s Workplace stated.
“What was much more alarming for the caller was that they heard the engine splutter, and so they stored eyes on the airplane till they overpassed it simply over the horizon,” Hallworth stated.
Half Moon Bay residents who noticed the airplane in bother stated that it was removed from the flight path of the close by airport.
“It was out of the trail of the flight, by the point I heard it, it needed to have been, there’s no means as a result of planes don’t fly over my home and that airplane was proper by there so I’m fairly positive he was in search of assist fast, or she,” native Diana Fernandez advised US broadcaster ABC.
The physique of a girl, not believed to be Ms Petit, has been recovered from the water.
Mr Ferrier posted in July final 12 months about buying the Cozy MK IV airplane with buddies, captioning the Instagram put up “the gang will get a airplane”.
“Trying ahead to many extra adventures,” he additionally wrote.
Born in Armidale, Mr Ferrier had constructed a life for himself within the US, graduating from MIT College in Massachusetts in 2019 with a level in aerospace engineering.
He and Ms Petit had moved to California lower than a 12 months in the past to start out a brand new life within the San Francisco Bay space.
The couple typically shared photographs of their flying adventures, together with Mr Ferrier’s love of experimental flight checks.
He typically constructed planes and had beforehand labored as a take a look at pilot.
Vermont man Tim Pickles who flew with Mr Ferrier years in the past described him as a “good man” who liked flying.
“I didn’t know him nicely, however he was a very good man and, in my e book, anybody who helps you to pull 6 g’s in an plane with them is an efficient kind to be round,” he wrote on social media.
US authorities are presently investigating the crash.