{"id":471467,"date":"2026-09-22T02:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471467\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T02:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:16:08","slug":"authorities-id-flight-instructor-killed-in-plane-crash-at-montgomery-gibbs-airport-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/471467\/","title":{"rendered":"Authorities ID flight instructor killed in plane crash at Montgomery-Gibbs airport \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of two men who died in a fatal plane crash at a San Diego airport on Labor Day was a licensed pilot and flight instructor who used his multilingual skills to help aviation students from other places who wanted to learn to fly in the U.S., his family said.<\/p>\n

Frederic Hewett, 37, was identified by the county Medical Examiner\u2019s Office Monday as the second person onboard the Cessna 172 that crashed shortly before 5:30 p.m. on Sept. 7.<\/p>\n

Earlier, the office had identified Roger Shimizu, 45, as being killed in the fiery crash. A person by that name was listed in federal records as obtaining a student pilot certificate in May.<\/p>\n

No one on the ground at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Kearny Mesa was hurt. Both men died before they could be taken to a hospital.<\/p>\n

His family said they believe he was teaching a student pilot when the crash occurred.<\/p>\n

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash, preliminary information<\/a> indicates the mishap appeared to have occurred during a \u201cgo-around\u201d \u2014 essentially an aborted landing attempt that requires the pilot to keep the plane aloft to re-enter the traffic pattern and try again.<\/p>\n

\"SanSan Diego Fire-Rescue engines park on scene of a fatal airplane crash at Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport in Kearny Mesa on Sept. 7, 2026. (K.C. Alfred \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

The plane may have stalled before it hit the ground, according to a brief preliminary report from the Federal Aviation Administration released earlier this month.<\/p>\n

The FAA said the plane crashed while landing at runway 28L \u201cafter left wing dipped then (aircraft) appeared to stall and spun into ground.\u201d It caught fire after the crash.<\/p>\n

The NTSB is expected to issue a preliminary report within 30 days of the crash.<\/p>\n

The four-seat plane was registered to an Idaho resident, according to FAA records. The owner appears to be a flight instructor and founder of Fly San Diego, a flight school with locations in San Diego and Idaho, according to the school\u2019s website.<\/p>\n

Hewett held certificates as a commercial pilot, a flight instructor and a ground instructor for advanced instrument, according to an FAA database.<\/p>\n

Hewett\u00a0grew up in San Diego County and graduated from Valhalla High School in Rancho San Diego and later from University of California Irvine.<\/p>\n

He was married and had two stepchildren and split his time between Arizona and San Diego County, said his sister, Maria Hewett.<\/p>\n

Aviation was his passion, she said, and he had worked as a flight instructor for several years.<\/p>\n

He also had a love for languages, history, geography and culture and had traveled extensively.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy the time of his passing, Freddy could write, read, and converse fluently in Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and a California Indigenous language \u2014 a gift that took him on extensive travels through Japan, China, Korea, and Mexico,\u201d his family wrote in a GoFundMe campaign<\/a> to raise money for funeral expenses. \u201cHis connection to Japan ran especially deep: it began in high school, carried him through a year studying at Hitotsubashi University, and led him to study traditional Noh theatre and dance under a respected teacher \u2014 a rare mark of the genuine curiosity and respect he held for Japanese culture his whole life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hewett enjoyed working with students from other countries who wanted to become pilots, helping them study for written exams and coaching them on \u201cairline-specific English terms,\u201d his sister said.<\/p>\n

In San Diego, he was deeply involved with the San Diego-Yokohama Sister City Society, which had honored him in 2019 with the Spirit Award in recognition of his extraordinary service, loyalty and devotion. He also had helped relaunch the House of Japan in Balboa Park.<\/p>\n

Hewett\u2019s instinct for \u201cbuilding bridges between people and places defined so much of what he gave to the world,\u201d his family said in the GoFundMe, from tutoring and hosting exchange students to working to strengthen the friendship between San Diego and Yokohama.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of two men who died in a fatal plane crash at a San Diego airport on Labor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,138,3053,6568,181,23,100,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-471467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-east-county","tag-el-cajon","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}