LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – A Washington man who had promoted a summertime extreme sports event in Lake County several years ago has died in a Florida plane crash.
Rob Stimmel, 61, and his wife, 45-year-old, Maria Jose Cepa, were killed in the crash, which occurred on Nov. 20 near Orlando, Fla., according to the Orange County, Fla., sheriff's office.
Stimmel and his wife had been married only days before and were returning from their honeymoon when the crash occurred, according to a statement from Redmond, Wash.-based Mohan Skiing and Boarding, for which the couple were instructors.
Stimmel had been best known in Lake County for BoardStock, which featured extreme sports both on land and on Clear Lake for several years.
A Federal Aviation Administration accident and incident notification on the crash said it happened just before 4:30 p.m. Nov. 20 five miles from Orlando as Stimmel was flying a single-engine Beechcraft.
In an odd coincidence, Clear Lake is the name of the Florida lake into which Stimmel's plane crashed.
The National Transportation Safety Board is the lead investigative agency on the crash.
NTSB spokesman Nicholas Worrell told Lake County News that it's still too early to say what occurred.
Worrell said investigators are still gathering information and interviewing witnesses, as well as looking at the plane's machinery and the environment in which the crash took place.
The NTSB will release a preliminary accident report in about two weeks, Worrell said, but it will take six months to a year to conduct a full investigation.
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Event promoter dies in Florida plane crash
- Elizabeth Larson
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