A Baton Rouge, La., cosmetic surgeon and his two adult children, who were scheduled to graduate from college Friday, were reportedly killed mid-flight when the small plane piloted by their father broke apart in the air Wednesday.
“Walking across the stage tomorrow without you is going to be very difficult for our class, but, I promise you, we won’t take a single moment for granted, because we all know how hard you worked to get here with us,” lamented one of Giselle Doucet’s classmates, Jennifer Windham, on Facebook on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the future veterinarian was sitting alongside her brother Jean-Luc Doucet in a small single-engine Beechcraft V35 plane piloted by their father Lucius J. Doucet III, a well-known cosmetic surgeon in Louisiana, when the aircraft allegedly broke apart. in mid-flight, the “New York Post” reported Thursday.
The trio, who flew from Gonzales to Louisville, Kentucky, were flying over Tennessee when the plane reportedly exploded in the air around midday, leaving “a fairly large debris field” for nearly a kilometer, Williamson County Sheriff Mark Elrod said at a press conference.
“It appears that the flight actually stopped in mid-air. It quickly became clear that this would be a search and recovery operation, not a search and rescue operation,” he was quoted as saying.
According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), bad weather could have been a factor in the accident, Aaron McCarter, an investigator for the independent government agency, reportedly raised.
“If the weather conditions did not cause the accident, they were a factor in the accident,” he said during a press conference, according to the American media.
On social networks, testimonies followed one another to pay tribute to the three victims, while colleagues of the aviation enthusiast praised “not only (of) an exceptional surgeon, but also (of) a man compassionate person who touched the lives of countless people in our community,” according to testimony from the Williamson Cosmetic Center.
For their part, Giselle and Jean-Luc Doucet were normally scheduled to take the stage on Friday to receive their diplomas from Louisiana State University (LSU), in veterinary medicine and engineering respectively.
“This is heartbreaking for the LSU community, but especially for those who knew and loved these two students, and those who expected to share their diploma with them. We will honor both students during their respective opening ceremonies,” the university said in a press release.
