State police said on Friday that medical research software tycoon Glen de Vries (Glen de Vries) last month with actor William Shatner (William Shatner) ride in blue by Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos) A rocket operated by Blue Origin flew into space, and he was killed in a small plane crash in New Jersey.
The police said the plane crashed in Sussex County, New Jersey, northwest of New York City on Thursday, adding that 49-year-old De Vries and another 54-year-old man on the plane, Thomas Fischer, were killed. .
According to the Federal Aviation Administration, which is investigating the crash, the single-engine Cessna 172 crashed in a forested area in a state park near Lake Kiama in New Jersey about 40 minutes before sunset.
No other official details about the circumstances of the accident were immediately provided.
“Such a tragic loss. The warm and vibrant Glen made us laugh and light up the room. He is a visionary, an innovator-a true leader,” Blue Origin said Bezos, founder and executive chairman of online retail giant Amazon.com, said on Twitter, adding that he was “heartbroken.”
De Vries is an instrument-level private pilot and the founder of the clinical research company Medidata Solutions. Last month, he and three other civilian crew members took the New Shepard rocket ship of Blue Origin, an astronomical tourism company, and flew in a suborbital vehicle. To space.
The most famous of New Shepard’s four passengers is Shatner, the 90-year-old actor best known for playing Captain James T. Kirk in the original 1960s TV show Star TrekThe October 13 launch made Shatner the oldest person ever to fly into space.
The other two crew members on that flight were former NASA engineer Chris Boshuizen and Blue Origin vice president Audrey Powers.
Medidata Solutions was established by de Vries in 1999. According to the professional profile of de Vries released by Blue Origin when it was selected as one of the four passengers of New Shepard, the platform was listed as the most used clinical research platform in the world.
He served as the vice chairman of the life sciences and healthcare division of French software company Dassault Systemes, which acquired Medidata in 2019. He also served as a trustee of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
