The 22-year-old skateboarder and rising social media star Josh Neuman was killed in a plane crash in Iceland along with the pilot and two other men, authorities have confirmed.
Neuman created the most popular skateboarding videos of all time, and his YouTube channel had approximately 1.2 million followers.
Nicola Bellavia, 32, a skydiver and social media influencer from Belgium, and Tim Alings, 27, sponsorship manager for the Belgian fashion brand Suspicious Antwerp – which Neuman was in Iceland to work with – were also killed along with the pilot, Haraldur Diego, 49, a prominent Icelandic aviators who ran photography tours.
The bodies were discovered on Sunday in Lake Thingvallavatn using a remote submarine and sonar, though bad weather has prevented their retrieval, according to Sky News.
The Cessna 172 disappeared from radar on Thursday without sending a distress signal. It was eventually found in Iceland’s second-largest lake, about 30 miles east of the capital, Reykjavik, after a hunt by more than 1,000 members of Iceland’s Search and Rescue organization.
A Suspicious Antwerp spokesman, Bram Boriau, told Associated Press that the purpose of the flight was to capture footage of Iceland’s stunning scenery.
“All persons present were hugely passionate about travel and content creation, hence these themes were the main focus of the trip,” Boriau said.
