
(Glen de Vries, is the man on the far right of the pic )
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Hampton NJ, a crew mate of William Shatner’s in last month’s historic rocket trip to the edge of space, was one of two men killed Thursday in a plane crash in New Jersey, officials said.
William Shatner’s crew mate in last month’s historic rocket trip to the edge of space was one of two men killed Thursday in a plane crash in New Jersey, officials said. Glen de Vries, 49, of New York City, and Thomas P. Fischer, 54, of Hopatcong, New Jersey, died following the small aircraft crash shortly before 3 p.m. in Hampton Township, according to New Jersey State Police.De Vries joined Shatner and other crew members aboard the Oct. 13 flight developed by Blue Origin, the private spaceflight company founded by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating Thursday’s crash, police said.
The New Jersey Herald reported the FAA alerted public safety authorities that a single-engine Cessna 172 went missing near Kemah Lake, about 50 miles northwest of Newark. Emergency crews found the wreckage about an hour later, the newspaper reported. The aircraft was “destroyed” in the crash, which occurred “under unknown circumstances,” an initial report by the FAA states, according to the Herald.
De Vries co-founded software company Medidata Solutions, which specializes in management of electronic data from clinical trials. He also served as a trustee for Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
Fischer was the owner and head instructor of Fischer Aviation, a family-run flight school in Essex County.