WASHINGTON—Richard Rockefeller, the great-grandson of oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller, died Friday when his plane crashed shortly after takeoff in New York state.
Rockefeller, 65, was flying home to Falmouth, Maine, said Fraser Seitel, a spokesperson for the Rockefeller family.
The single-engine Piper Meridian turboprop departed the Westchester County airport shortly after 8 a.m. Friday in fog and went down less than two kilometres away, said John Starace, the airport operations manager.
“Visibility and the cloud ceiling were very low,” Starace said in a telephone interview.
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Richard Rockefeller attended a 99th birthday dinner for his father, David Rockefeller Sr., on Thursday, Seitel said. An experienced pilot, he had flown the plane to the Westchester County airport in White Plains earlier that day.
The FAA and U.S. National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. Starace said the plane struck trees on a residential property and crashed. No one was hurt on the ground and no structures were hit, he said.
“The family is in shock,” Seitel said in a telephone interview. “It’s a terrible tragedy. Richard was a wonderful and cherished member of the family, a son, brother, husband, father and grandfather.”
Richard Rockefeller practiced and taught medicine in Portland, Maine, from 1982 until 2000, according to a biography on the website of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a philanthropic foundation where he was an advisory trustee.
From 1989 to 2010, he was chairman of the U.S. advisory board of Doctors Without Borders. He also served on the board of Rockefeller University in New York until 2006.
His recent endeavours included working with veterans on treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder.
John D. Rockefeller amassed a fortune after co-founding Standard Oil in 1870 and later focused on charitable giving.
The Rockefellers were once the nation’s wealthiest family. David Rockefeller Sr. is ranked 193rd on the Forbes list of richest Americans, with an estimated worth of $2.8 billion (U.S.). He is the world’s oldest billionaire.