A Hollywood actor and his two young daughters are feared dead after four bodies were retrieved from a plane that crashed into the sea off a Caribbean Island on Thursday. The incident took place around noon on Thursday in the waters off Bequia, which is a part of St. Vincent.
The victims have been identified by local police as Christian Oliver, 55, original name Christian Klesper, and his daughters, Madita, 10, and Annik, 12. The pilot was Robert Sachs, who also owned the plane involved. The family had arrived in the area on December 26. The chilling moment when the plane crashed was caught on camera and has since gone viral on social media.
Killed along with His Daughters
In a video circulating on social media, a person recording can be heard saying, "The plane crashed! Call the Coast Guard!"
Christian Klepser, known by the stage name Christian Oliver, was a German-born actor. He appeared in major movies such as "Speed Racer" and "Valkyrie." One of his first roles in the United States was a long-standing stint on "Saved by the Bell: The New Class" in 1995.
The group was en route to St. Lucia when the crash occurred, according to authorities. Shortly after taking off from JF Mitchell Airport in Bequia, the plane encountered unspecified difficulties.
Local fishermen and recreational swimmers who were in the area assisted in the initial search, as mentioned in a police statement. The water's depth is estimated to be around 70 feet.
According to reports from St. Vincent-based news outlet Searchlight, Sachs radioed the tower shortly after takeoff to report trouble and that he was turning back. Unfortunately, that was the last communication.
Unfortunate Incident
In an interview with the local media outlet iWitness News, a local fisherman slammed the coast guard's response to the tragedy.
"We explained to them that the tide was now starting to run so if you left it (the wreckage) there, it was a (possibility) that we wouldn't find the plane again, that it would drift off," he said.
He mentioned that the plane's likely path due to the tide would lead it to open water. The fishermen decided to recover the bodies themselves using ropes and a buoy to mark the location.
Another official, as per the outlet, suggested that the coast guard should have maintained personnel in the area until the wreckage was fully recovered.
The unidentified fisherman said that he was in close proximity to the area where the plane hit the water and reached the scene as it sank to the seabed.
Upon the arrival of the coast guard, the fishermen were instructed to await official divers before retrieving the bodies.
Cornell Campbell, who saw the plane crashing, told iWitness that the plane drew his notice because of the "noise from the aircraft, the engine, the propeller." "Everything shut off the first time. So, I told my friend, 'That plane is going to crash.' But the plane kicked up back again like it built up back a power," he said.
Campbell described that the plane regained power but had descended in altitude following the initial malfunction. While the pilot tried to correct the descent, it seemed that the power was lost again, and the plane "just dived down."
"But when it sinking, something went "Bouff!" in the water and that is why I said it exploded. So that is the only thing I heard when the plane was sinking. It went "Bouff!" under the water," Campbell said.
