According to friends of the family, a couple from Utah was killed last week when a tiny aircraft they were flying in crashed in northern California.
PEOPLE was provided with a statement from the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, which said that authorities were informed of an aircraft accident on October 20 at around 6:00 p.m. local time in a remote site in the 21000 block of Airport Road near Covelo, California. The statement was shared with PEOPLE.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), which is in charge of the inquiry, revealed to PEOPLE that the Beechcraft A-36 aircraft went down immediately after taking off from Round Valley Airport in Covelo. The NTSB is managing the investigation.
Further information was provided by the sheriff’s office, which said that the jet had caught fire. When the blaze was finally brought under control, authorities “located the bodies of two deceased individuals.”
KSL-TV, an affiliate of NBC, said that the fatalities were identified by loved ones as Vaughn Porter, who was 54 years old, and his girlfriend Jaime Redford Rust, who was 52 years old. Both deceased were from Utah. According to the publication, the jet was flown by Porter, a pilot with JetBlue with more than 30 years of expertise in the industry.
According to KHL-TV, the members of Porter’s family have said that they are “devastated” by the news of their father’s loss. Porter’s dad started dating Rust after their mother passed away from COVID-19 in January 2022.
“I feel like we’re all mourning her loss just as much as my dad,” said Kyle, Porter’s son. “I feel like we all loved her just as much as we loved my dad.” “We had a great deal of concern about her. She had a great deal of concern for us.
The family continued by saying that Porter’s father had also been killed in an airplane accident back in the 1990s.
“He crashed it into a side of a mountain, and in order to pay tribute to his father, my dad bought the same type of plane,” Kyle recalled. “That’s the plane he crashed in as well.”
Shaun, Vaughn’s other son, started a GoFundMe account in order to raise money. The money that was collected will be used to pay for Vaughn’s funeral as well as the transportation fees required to get him from California to Utah so that he may be buried next to his late wife.
“After losing our mom unexpectedly last year our dad stepped up admirably to fill the gaping hole left in our family without her,” according to Shaun. “In spite of the terrible tragedy, he never lost his upbeat attitude and never stopped looking for ways to bring more happiness and unity into our lives. He was the center of our family, and now that he is gone, we feel as if we have lost everything.
Shaun, Vaughn’s other son, started a GoFundMe account in order to raise money. The money that was collected will be used to pay for Vaughn’s funeral as well as the transportation fees required to get him from California to Utah so that he may be buried next to his late wife.
“After losing our mom unexpectedly last year our dad stepped up admirably to fill the gaping hole left in our family without her,” according to Shaun. “In spite of the terrible tragedy, he never lost his upbeat attitude and never stopped looking for ways to bring more happiness and unity into our lives. He was the center of our family, and now that he is gone, we feel as if we have lost everything.
A note that read, “We are deeply saddened to share the devastating news of Jaime’s untimely passing in a tragic plane crash alongside her boyfriend,” was shown on the website. “As her family mourns this unfathomable loss, they are confronted with the crushing cost of funeral expenditures…Let us band together to celebrate Jaime’s life and to support her children as they navigate this difficult period in their lives.
The National Transportation Safety Board has confirmed to PEOPLE that investigators will collect information and documents, such as recordings of any air traffic control contacts, weather data, pilot backgrounds, witness accounts, aircraft maintenance records, and the pilot’s license.
PEOPLE have inquired for further information by contacting the creators of the GoFundMe campaign.