Billionaire Who Went to Space on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin Rocket Dies in Plane Crash

Glen de Vries, the billionaire founder of Medidata Solutions who went to space alongside William Shatner aboard a Blue Origin rocket, has reportedly died in a plane crash.

Sky News reports that Glen de Vries, the billionaire CEO of clinical research firm Medidata Solutions, has died in a plane crash. De Vries accompanied William Shatner aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft on October 13 where he spent more than ten minutes in space.

This undated photo made available by Blue Origin in October 2021 shows, from left, Chris Boshuizen, William Shatner, Audrey Powers and Glen de Vries. Their launch scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021 will be Blue Origin’s second passenger flight, using the same capsule and rocket that Jeff Bezos used for his own trip three months earlier. (Blue Origin via AP)

De Vries was killed along with another individual in a plane crash in New Jersey, according to police reports.

The plane that De Vries was aboard was a small single-engine Cessna 172 that went down in a wooded area of Hampton Township on Thursday. The Federal Aviation Administration alerted public safety agencies to search for the missing plane on Friday. The plane wreckage was found about an hour later.

Blue Origin said in a statement: “He brought so much life and energy to the entire Blue Origin team and to his fellow crewmates. His passion for aviation, his charitable work, and his dedication to his craft will long be revered and admired.”

The other person killed in the crash was Thomas P. Fischer, the founder of a family-run flight school and the school’s head instructor. Jeff Bezos’ partner, Lauren Sanchez, commented that de Vries’ death was a “painful loss,” in an Instagram post.

“We got to know Glen de Vries, an incredible man, and his partner Leah last month”, she wrote. “Leah’s love for Glen was visible every time we saw them together. When he took off for space she gripped my hand so tight it hurt. Thinking of that moment today with a broken heart. Our deepest sympathies go out to Leah and Glen’s family, we are so saddened by the tragic news.”