The Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet carrying 78 people had careened across the runway at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport before crashing and killing 41 people, including one crew member, according to the Russian Investigative Committee.

Brooks had gone to Russia to work as a professional fishing guide.

“He is literally the most passionate you’ll ever meet,” his friend Stewart Otterberg, 23, said Monday. “You just know that they’re like a good soul. His smile was infectious. He never had anything bad to say about anyone.”

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The plane, operated by Aeroflot, had taken off from Moscow for Murmansk, a city above the Arctic Circle in northwest Russia, when the pilot turned back minutes later to make an emergency landing.

Aeroflot said Sunday that the plane was forced to return to the airport for a “technical reason” and that its engines caught fire as it touched down. The cause of the crash was under investigation, and authorities said Sunday that a criminal probe had been opened.

Friends said it was the first time Brooks had left the United States.

Otterberg, who had known Brooks since about the ninth grade, said his friend learned to tie his own flies as a youth and loved nothing more than to be on a river somewhere floating them downstream in pursuit of trout. The two met while working as ushers at the local opera company, and hardly a day would go by that Brooks wouldn’t mention fishing.

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Otterberg said he almost wondered what he was doing with his own life, grinding out a degree in college in Oklahoma City, when he heard Brooks mention he had just returned from a weekend trip in New Mexico’s backcountry with a smile on his face and $800 in pay — plus $200 in tips in his wallet. But Brooks wouldn’t be bragging, Otterberg said, because he was humble about what he did, the car he drove and the way he dressed. But he loved what he did and the place he grew up.

“We took [his death] really hard because we’re all really close,” Otterberg said.

Ivan Valdez, who hired Brooks as a guide in Santa Fe when Brooks was 16, said he was not only a talented and committed angler, but a big-hearted young man. Clients and fellow guides alike found him a delight to work with.

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“I went looking for Jeremy — he didn’t come looking for me, even at that early age,” said Valdez, who owns The Reel Life in Santa Fe. “He’s gifted, man. That kid was one of the most gifted anglers you will ever meet. But it’s not only that. It was his maturity and the way he was with people. Jeremy loved everybody. He cared for so many people in this world.”

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Brooks loved to hike deep into the wild, sometimes for days, to reach the best fishing holes — hence his Instagram handle @backcountrybrooks — but he was also generous with his knowledge of the sport, friends said. Whatever he caught, he also released.

“That’s all he did. I never knew Jeremy to eat a fish,” Valdez said.

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His love of fishing began when his mother bought him a fly-fishing tour as a birthday present when he was young, Valdez said. He loved nothing more than to fish or hang around the guide shop talking about fishing. This spring, after graduation from Colorado College in Colorado Springs with a degree in environmental science, Brooks seized the chance to work for a guide firm that ran trips in Russia, Valdez said.