Marko Misic died doing what he loved. The 20-year-old Etobicoke pilot was at the helm of a small, single-engine aircraft when it crashed to the ground Friday night near Moorefield, Ont., north of Kitchener.

The crash killed Misic along with his three passengers: Mohammed Shahnawaz Zia, 23, Wasay Rizwan, 27, both from Toronto, and Victoria Margaret Luk, 19, of Mississauga.

His older brother, Tony, said Misic had two passions: flying and soccer.

“He was my best friend. He was disciplined, determined, a hell of a pilot and a really, really proud Croat,” he said.

All four victims were employees in the maintenance engineering department at Bombardier Aerospace Commercial Aircraft in Downsview. Luk and Misic had just completed a summer student internship on Friday, while Zia and Rizwan were full-time employees.

The group was scheduled to fly from Waterloo to Toronto and Niagara Falls, then back to Waterloo. It’s still unclear why the plane plummeted in the cornfield where it was discovered by Ontario Provincial Police at 8:30 p.m. on Friday. The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is currently investigating the crash.

Tony Misic said he couldn’t imagine what went wrong in the flight, given his brother’s extensive experience and talent for flying.

Misic found success in flying at a young age. As a boy, he joined the Mimico branch of the Royal Canadian Air Cadets and earned his first pilot’s licence at just 16. He earned his commercial licence at 19 and was studying in Ryerson University’s aerospace engineering program, about to enter his third year.

His hard work earned him the coveted internship with Bombardier as well as a $1,500 scholarship to pursue his flight training, for which he wrote a letter of gratitude where he expressed his dreams for the future.

“Coming from a family of five kids and very loving parents that show a great amount of support towards us, I have always set a lot of goals in advance to be able to fulfill many of my future aspirations,” he wrote, adding he eventually wanted to become a Canadair forest fire fighter pilot.

“The idea is to make a difference to the nature and people of this planet that we live on.”

His passion for flying inspired his younger sister, Josipa, to pursue her pilot’s licence as well. Last month, the 18-year-old earned her first licence and pointed to her big brother Marko as her main influence and biggest supporter, saying she talked with him on the phone for an hour the night before her first solo flight.

Along with his love of flight, Misic loved soccer, playing for his high school team while attending Bishop Allen Academy and cheering loudly for the Croatia team during the Eurocup this summer, his brother recalled.

“We had a blast,” Tony Misic said, adding both he and his brother played with the Islington Rangers soccer team for many years.

He also had a talent for making friends: a Facebook page in his memory quickly racked up more than 400 members by Sunday evening. His infectious, sunny personality is to blame, Tony said.

“He loved everyone around him and everyone loved him,” he said. “That’s what makes it such a tragedy because he was such a perfect person.”

Mohammed Shahnawaz Zia was a Ryerson aerospace engineering graduate who was active in the school’s Muslim Students’ Association. On Sunday, the group posted an announcement in memory of Zia on their Facebook wall, calling him “a kind brother.”

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Victoria Luk was an industrial engineering student at the University of Toronto about to enter her third year and Wasay Rizwan was a graduate of UofT who worked as an engineer at Bombardier Aerospace.

With files from Dylan Robertson