Social media influencers among 6 dead in TPC Scottsdale plane crash

Investigators are working to determine whether a small airplane that crashed on a Scottsdale golf course, killing all six aboard, was equipped to carry that many people, including three whose identities were confirmed by The Arizona Republic, officials said Tuesday afternoon.

“Right now, it’s something we’re trying to find out,” said Eliott Simpson, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, during a news briefing near where the Piper PA-24 crashed Monday night shortly after takeoff from Scottsdale Airport. The NTSB is leading the investigation.

The identities of those killed in the Monday night crash had not been officially released by investigators as of Tuesday evening, pending formal family notification, officials said. They did not have a timeline for when their names would be formally announced, Scottsdale police said in a statement.

THE LATEST: Scottsdale plane crash: All 6 victims officially identified

However, widespread accounts of some of the victims were circulating on social media.

The Republic on Tuesday verified through family or friends the identities of three victims whose trip to Scottsdale ended in tragedy.

Instagram stars and adventurers

Anand Patel was “an entrepreneur with lots of energy and lots of charisma,” his twin brother, Akash Patel, told The Republic. The two came to the U.S. from India in 2009 to attend college.

“Anand” translates to “happiness.” So, Akash Patel said, his brother was widely known by the name “Happy.”

An Oklahoma resident, Happy co-founded a clothing line and worked as an event promoter, flying coast to coast with friends and clients on trips that often included stops in Scottsdale.

“My brother was taken away from us doing what he loved to do the most, which was spending time with his friends and flying,” Akash Patel said, adding that he lived a “celebrity life” as an "Instagram star."

Mariah Coogan, another person on the plane, was a horse trainer who did equestrian sports and left high school in 2012 to pursue modeling opportunities, said Graham Rutherford, principal of Cardinal Newman High School in Santa Rosa, California, who learned of the woman's death Tuesday.

"She was eager for adventure, and I always found her easy to speak with," Rutherford told The Republic. "She got on well with many students, too."

Coogan, who continued pursuing modeling, was visiting the Valley for the Phoenix Lights Festival, according to a post Saturday on her Instagram profile. “Forgot my sunnies” she wrote in a caption for a photo of her wearing a new pair of aviators for her nearly 27,000 followers.

Her mother, Stacey Coogan, told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat in California she also learned of the crash Tuesday morning.

On Monday night, Mariah Coogan had posted a photo of the plane, the words “Off to Vegas” across the bottom along with a check-in at Scottsdale Airport. Once in the cabin, she recorded a video showing the group together, smiling and enjoying the moment, apparently minutes before the plane crashed into the golf course and burst into flames.

Also on board was James Pedroza, who worked as a VIP host at a gay nightclub at the Mirage in Las Vegas. He was an "ally to the LGBTQ community," his friend and co-worker, Garrett Pattiani, told The Republic.

"I am sad that he is gone, but loved how he lived life to the fullest. He was wanting to see the world and travel. He will be missed," Pattiani said. "He never judged anyone and was always there to stand up for equal rights."

Pedroza described himself as an "avid traveler" and posted on Instagram that he was looking forward to visiting his 37th country. He recently traveled to Lake Tahoe and posed next to the plane that crashed Monday, a plane that he said he bought a share in last summer. Investigators, however, have not confirmed that he was piloting the aircraft when it crashed.

Information about the other three victims was not immediately available Tuesday.

An ongoing investigation

Simpson said Tuesday that investigators were working to determine everyone who was on the Las Vegas-bound plane when it departed from Runway 3 at about 8:45 p.m. on Monday. They are also looking into the pilot and his qualifications.

The aircraft was built in 1970, according to Federal Aviation Administration records. Though the plane was listed as a four-seater, Simpson said there were various iterations and modifications that could have been made that year, expanding its seating capacity.

Even though the plane was registered in Las Vegas, the official registration was not deemed fit because it was terminated or in question, possibly because of a paperwork issue or technical issues, according to FAA records.

For reasons investigators have not yet determined, the plane crashed about three-fourths of a mile away, and 30 degrees to the left of the runway it took off from at Scottsdale Airport.

It then burst into flames. Aerial footage taken Tuesday morning showed the charred remnants of the plane, which crash-landed in an area next to the green at the second hole on the Champions Golf Course at TPC Scottsdale just north of the airport.

“You could actually feel the ground kind of shake,” said Debbie Robinson, a Scottsdale resident who lives near the golf course. She said she saw the smoke after the crash and knew something major had happened. “… For the ground to shake and to feel it all the way up there, it was really unbelievable.”

Simpson said crews were working to collect perishable evidence from the scene Tuesday. The wreckage will then be transported to a site in Phoenix for further evaluation.

A preliminary report is expected in 10 to 14 days. A report outlining in detail what occurred could take up to 18 months, as is typical in aviation investigations.

The FAA also will assist in the investigation, according to Allen Kenitzer, a spokesman at the agency.

The Champions course was closed Tuesday for the investigation, but the TPC Stadium Course, where the popular annual Waste Management Phoenix Open is held, was open for play, TPC administrator Taylor Farley said.

Deadliest crash in years

Monday's crash is the deadliest in recent Arizona history and among a half-dozen fatal aviation incidents since the start of 2017, according to NTSB records.

Five British tourists died after the Papillon Airways helicopter flight they were on approached a landing pad Feb. 10 in Grand Canyon West, spun twice and smashed to the ground, where it burst into flames.

The investigation into that crash is ongoing, though the company said it would retrofit helicopters with a fuel tank that is more resistant to fire. Three of the seven occupants died at the scene, and two others succumbed to their injuries days later in a Las Vegas hospital.

There were six fatal aviation incidents in 2017 that killed 13 people, according to NTSB records.

The deadliest involved a Scottsdale-based attorney whose New Year's ski trip to Colorado ended in tragedy. The small plane he was flying crashed on the south face of the Mogollon Rim, about 12 miles north of the Payson Airport, on Jan. 2, 2017, killing the pilot as well as his wife and two daughters.

Reach the reporter at 602-444-8515, jpohl@azcentral.com or on Twitter: @pohl_jason.

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