Bequia fishermen recovered the bodies of actor Christian Oliver, his two daughters and the pilot of their private plane which crashed into the sea on January 4, 2024, after taking off from the island’s airport from Bequia to the Grenadines.
Christian Klepser, whose stage name is Christian Oliver, and his two daughters (Annick aged 12 and Madita, 10) had just left the island of Bequia aboard a private plane, after a vacation in the Grenadines. The plane was heading to Saint Lucia where they were to catch another flight at the international airport.
The 51-year-old actor has starred alongside Tom Cruise and George Clooney. He played a role in the last Indiana Jones film.
The pilot, Robert Sachs, owner of a scuba diving company, who had lived in Bequia for 40 years, was used to ferrying passengers to St. Lucia and Martinique.
His plane, a Bellanca Super Viking number N4023B with its original paint, was photographed several times on the tarmac of Aimé Césaire airport in Lamentin.
The single-engine plane took off around noon on Thursday January 4, 2024 from Bequia airport.
According to eyewitnesses, fishermen based at the fishing port of Paget Farm in the south of the island, the engine had been cut off and the plane had started to lose altitude.
The pilot managed to restart the machine before turning around to return to Bequia airport, but the engine stopped again. Then, the aircraft plunged into the sea between Bequia and the island of Petit-Nevis.
The fishermen contacted the Saint Vincent and the Grenadines Coast Guard. The officers responded that there was no diver on duty.
The fishermen therefore took the situation in hand. It was necessary to act quickly, because the strong currents threatened to carry the wreck into deeper waters.
They attached it to a rope with a buoy to mark its location, at a depth of nearly 30m. Then they began to recover the bodies of the passengers who were still strapped to the seats.
The fishermen were thus able to bring the bodies to the surface of the water, before their transfer to the coast guard boat.
After the operation, the fishermen did not hide their emotion. With the divers, they were congratulated “for speed” of this delicate action with regard to the unfortunate victims of what appears to be an accident.
But the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation will carry out an investigation, to try to elucidate all the circumstances of the tragedy.
Jessica Klepser, the actor’s wife and the mother of the missing children, did not participate in this trip. She remained working in California in the United States, the Klepsers’ place of residence.