Divers found the bodies of two Norwegians killed in the crash of a small plane off the east coast of Florida last week, along with the sunken Cessna they were flying.
Police identified the victims as 28-year-old William Bloch of Ålesund on Norway’s northwest coast and 21-year-old Gustav Granholm of Bærum, just west of Oslo. Bloch worked as an instructor at the flight school in Florida where Granholm was a student.
They were on a routine training flight from Phoenix East Aviation in Sarasota when their Cessna 172 reportedly caught fire and crashed into the ocean off Daytona Beach. The US’ National Transportation Safety Board will now work to find the cause of the crash.
As many as 70 Norwegians attend the flight school and they gathered Friday with two representatives from the Norwegian Seamen’s Church and officials from the school to grieve. “We are incredibly sad that hopes they’d be found alive are dashed, but also relieved to have this confirmation,” Ole Andre Osmundsen, a student at the school, told Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK).
The victims were described as “two very safety-minded persons and certainly not wild cowboys.” Osmundsen said he thought most of the students at the school were “going around thinking this could have happened to any of us.”
Views and News staff