SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Authorities have publicly identified the second of two men who died in a fiery Labor Day plane crash at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport.
Flight instructor Frederic Hewett, 37, was aboard a Cessna 172 that went down at the Serra Mesa general-aviation airport shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 7, according to the San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office.
Hewett died at the scene of the accident along with the other occupant of the aircraft, Roger Shimizu, 45, the agency reported.
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The four-seat plane appeared to stall during a landing approach, its left wing dipping down before the aircraft spun to the ground and burst into flames, according to a preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration.
Social media posts indicate that Hewett was an independent flight instructor who provided primary training in piloting single-engine airplanes. It remains unclear if he and Shimizu were taking part in a lesson at the time of the fatal accident, though authorities told news crews the aircraft may have gone down following an aborted landing attempt, a maneuver possibly undertaken as part of a skills exercise for a student pilot.
The aircraft was registered to an Idaho resident who is the founder of Fly San Diego, a flight school that operates out of the city airport between Interstate 15 and state Route 163, according to FAA records and news reports. The company lists Hewett as an employee on a professional-networking website.
Hewett, an El Cajon resident, also served as program coordinator of the Japanese Friendship Garden at Balboa Park, according to social media posts.
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