One of Star Trek star William Shatner’s companions on his trip to space last month with Blue Origin died in a plane crash Thursday, according to authorities.
Entrepreneur Glen de Vries, a 49-year-old from New York, and Fischer Aviation owner and head instructor Thomas Fischer, 54, were identified as the victims in the crash in Sussex, New Jersey, said a New Jersey State Police spokesperson.
The reason for the crash is being investigated, with preliminary results expected next week, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration told the New Jersey Herald.
“Our thoughts and support go out to Glen’s family,” a spokesperson for Dassault Systemes, which owns de Vries’s company Medidata, told CBS News. “Our deepest sympathy also goes out to our MEDIDATA team, which Glen co-founded. His tireless energy, empathy and pioneering spirit left their mark on everyone who knew him. We will truly miss Glen, but his dreams — which we share — live on: we will pursue progress in life sciences & healthcare as passionately as he did.”
TRAILBLAZING TOURIST TRIP TO ORBIT ENDS WITH SPLASHDOWN
De Vries was on a training flight when the plane crashed into a heavily wooded area, according to the incident report. Fischer was his flight instructor.
De Vries was one of two paying members of the crew aboard Blue Origin’s trip to space last month. How much the ticket cost was never released. However, it was reportedly over $250,000. Shatner, entrepreneur Chris Boshuizen, and Blue Origin executive Audrey Powers were also on the space flight.
After the trip, de Vries said he hoped visits to space will become possible for everyone on Earth instead of just the wealthy.
“I thought that would be important to me before we went up, and having done it makes me feel twice as much conviction. Maybe a thousand times more conviction. That is something we need to make accessible, in an equitable way, to as many people on the planet as possible,” de Vries said, according to CBS News.
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De Vries co-founded Medidata Solutions, a company specializing in clinical research.
