Father and son identified as victims in South Jersey plane crash earlier this week
John Noone III, 67, and his 24-year-old son, Kristofer Noone, of Pennsauken, died Monday after the yellow, single-engine plane they were flying suddenly descended and crashed.
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/pmn/KD6BHQSKJRFQNK6UMFZM77VKUQ.jpg)
A South Jersey father and son — who hailed from a family of pilots and were revered by relatives as hardworking, loving men — were identified as the victims of a plane crash in Bridgeton, N.J., earlier this week, according to family and law enforcement.
John Noone III, 67, and his 24-year-old son, Kristofer Noone, of Pennsauken, died Monday after the yellow, single-engine plane they were flying suddenly descended and crashed into a rural neighborhood around 2 p.m.
The National Transportation Safety Board did not respond to a request for comment on the status of its investigation, and the cause of the crash has not been released. According to police, the Champion Aeronca 7A plane departed from Bucks Airport, a small facility in Bridgeton close to the scene of the crash.
Kristofer Noone was a first officer with Spirit Airlines, according to his LinkedIn profile, and previously flew for Piedmont Airlines out of Philadelphia. He was piloting the flight with his father, whom friends and family called “Moose.”
The Noone family took to Facebook on Wednesday to remember their loved ones and share their devastation.
“My team is gone,” brother and son John Noone IV wrote on Facebook. “We got knocked out of the playoffs early. I will rebuild. I will not give up on our goal guys.”
Kris Noone was apprenticing to get his aircraft mechanics license, his older brother said, “to add to his laundry list of piloting certifications.”
His father, he said, was a Palmyra High School graduate and longtime pilot who loved talking about any and all things aviation.
“Our bond was inseparable, unimaginable. I am blessed to have my own children and strive to create that same bond with them that we had,” he said. “Fly high guys.”
Aaron Pearl, the owner of Bucks Airport, told Pennlive that the pair were best friends and beloved in the aviation world.
“They were very good people and loved in the aviation community,” Pearl said. “Just great, wonderful people. I can’t say enough about them. It’s just very sad. We’re just thinking of the Noone family.”