VANCOUVER—Elsa Wilk loved to travel.

It’s part of what drove her to move to Canada from South Africa in 2008. Eleven years later, she embarked on a tour of Alaska’s celebrated Misty Fjords with her brother and husband. Due to the remoteness of the area, the fjords are the kind of place travellers go once and remember for a lifetime.

They’re only accessible by boat or float plane. On Monday, Elsa Wilk, 37, her American husband Ryan Wilk, 39, and her brother Louis Botha, 46, opted to board a sea plane tour led by experienced pilot Randy Sullivan near Ketchikan, Alaska. None of them made it back.

Their plane and a second float plane crashed that afternoon, killing six people. Cassandra Webb, 62, and Simon Bodie, 56, also lost their lives.

Now people who knew the Canadian woman are remembering her as a “dedicated” and “sincere” person, committed to her work in the Vancouver tech industry, and passionate about martial arts.

Elsa Wilk, who was originally from Pretoria, South Africa, moved to Canada with her then-husband Ian Brink in 2008.

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“We both have always had the desire to see the world and travel,” Brink told Star Vancouver Wednesday. The couple built their lives in the Vancouver area, and Elsa quickly became dedicated to her work in the city’s vibrant tech industry.

She worked in multiple marketing and strategy roles. Her LinkedIn profile shows her most recent role was as the Marketing Director at CryptoKitties, a Vancouver-based blockchain game associated with local tech innovation studio Axiom Zen Inc.

“Once she put her mind to something she’d be hard pressed to give it up,” Brink said. “She was a very driven person.”

Derek Bolen, a friend and colleague, said Elsa made the time to share her drive and dedication.

“I could always rely on her for personal or professional advice and I considered her a close friend,” Bolen wrote in a message to Star Vancouver.

That applied outside of work, too. Elsa’s “passion” Brink said, was Tae Kwon Do, and she competed in the martial arts.

The pair split in 2012. They got their Canadian citizenship on the same day in 2013, which turned out to be the last time Brink saw her.

Elsa then remarried to an American man named Ryan Wilk, who worked in senior management at Vancouver based NuData, part of the American credit company Mastercard.

“Ryan joined NuData in 2014 and quickly became the face of the business across regions,” reads an email statement sent to Star Vancouver by Mastercard. “He has been a cherished member of the team and will be deeply missed by colleagues right across Mastercard and NuData.”

The Wilks, Botha and one other passenger were on board one of two float planes that were carrying cruise ship tourists when they collided mid-air Monday near the southeast Alaska town of Ketchikan, located about 200 kilometres northwest of Prince Rupert, B.C.

Initially, four people were reported dead, with two people missing. The U.S. Coast Guard said the bodies of the two missing people were recovered near the crash site Tuesday night.

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Global Affairs Canada says Canadian consular officials in Seattle are in contact with local authorities to gather additional information and provide assistance as needed.

“Our thoughts and sympathies are with the family and loved ones of the Canadian citizen who died in Alaska,” the department said.

With files from the Canadian Press

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