This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The coal tycoon Chris Cline, a major Republican donor, has died in a helicopter crash outside Big Grand Cay, a string of islands he owned in the Bahamas.

In tweets, Donald Trump expressed sympathy for the loss of a “great businessman and energy expert” and said Cline was “a wonderful man and great Republican!”

Cline and his 22-year-old daughter, Kameron, were on board the aircraft with five others when it went down on Thursday, a spokesman for Cline’s attorney Brian Glasser said on Friday.

The death of the 60-year-old magnate led to eulogies from industry leaders, government officials and academics, who described Cline as a visionary generous with his $1.8bn fortune.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chris Cline, seen as Marshall University dedicates a new indoor practice facility. Photograph: Sholten Singer/AP

Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said Cline began working in the mines of southern West Virginia at a young age, rising through the ranks of his father’s company. He formed his own energy development business, the Cline Group, which grew into one of the country’s top coal producers.

When he thought mining in the Appalachian region was drying up, he bought reserves in the Illinois Basin in a smart investment in high sulfur coal, according to the website of Missouri-based Foresight Energy, a company he formed.

Cline sold most of his interest in Foresight for $1.4bn and then put $150m into a metallurgical coal mine in Nova Scotia, according to a 2017 Forbes article titled Chris Cline Could Be The Last Coal Tycoon Standing.

The piece captured his opulence: a mansion in West Virginia with a manmade lake big enough to waterski on and a white stallion stud name Fabio. A gun collection so deep federal officials would take stock once a month. A 200ft yacht called Mine Games.

In the piece, Cline defended coal and waved off some scientific evidence for climate change.

“People deserve the cheapest energy they can get,” he said. “Tell the poor in India and China that they don’t deserve to have reliable, affordable electricity.”

To that effect, he also spoke about solar panels, wind turbines and Tesla batteries on Big Grand Cay, saying: “Where it makes sense, I’m absolutely for it.”

He gave Trump’s inaugural committee $1m and shared thousands more with conservative groups and Republican figures such as Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and the Florida senator Marco Rubio, according to federal records.

Cline gave at least $8.5m to Marshall University in West Virginia.

“Our hearts are heavy,” said Marshall’s president, Jerome A Gilbert. “Chris’s generosity to our research and athletics programs has made a mark on Marshall University and our students for many years to come.”

Authorities began searching for the helicopter after police received a report from Florida that it failed to arrive in Fort Lauderdale as expected on Thursday, Bahamas police superintendent Shanta Knowles said.

The bodies of four women and three men were taken to the Bahamian capital, Nassau, said Delvin Major, chief investigator for the Bahamas’ Air Accident Investigation Department. The Augusta AW139 helicopter was still in the water. Major did not believe there had been a distress call. The cause of the crash was undetermined, officials said.

A Royal Bahamas police force statement said authorities and locals found the aircraft two miles off Big Grand Cay, which Cline bought in 2014.

Big Grand Cay comprises about 213 acres over about half a dozen narrow islands. Real estate agent John Christie, who sold the land, said it was developed by the late Robert Abplanalp, inventor of the modern aerosol spray valve and a friend of Richard Nixon. The property became known as an escape for the disgraced president in the 1970s.