HALF MOON BAY — Cassidy Rae Petit and Lochie Ferrier were rapidly writing the next chapter in their lives.
The couple met in New England after college, fell in love, started raising a dog named Kane and moved to the Bay Area. Last fall, while the adventure-seeking couple was kayaking in Mexico, Ferrier got down on one knee and proposed.
They were just two weeks away from a sunrise wedding in Kauai, Hawaii — where Petit, an Oakland resident, planned to surf in her gown after the ceremony — when tragedy struck.
The day they planned for their wedding, Jan. 28, now will see a memorial for their loved ones to remember two of the bright spirits lost to disaster earlier this month.
Petit, 26, and Ferrier, 27, were identified on Monday as two of the four people killed when a homebuilt, single-engine, four-seater Cozy MK IV that Ferrier recently bought crashed into the waters off the coast of Half Moon Bay.
Last week, authorities and family members identified the other victims of the Jan. 14 crash: Isaac Zimmern and his longtime partner, Emma Willmer-Shiles, both 27 and living in San Francisco. Willmer-Shiles is the only victim whose body has been recovered.
The Petit family, in a statement on Monday, identified Ferrier as the pilot, an account the plane’s previous owner gave last week. Ferrier was a longtime test pilot who had worked at several aircraft firms, including one in the East Bay.
Thane Ostroth, who assembled the plane from many pre-built kits, told The Associated Press that he sold the aircraft last year to “a young, experienced and enthusiastic pilot from Australia.” Records show Ferrier hailed from Australia.
Ferrier’s LinkedIn page states that he attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked extensively with testing electric planes. He also was a test pilot as recently as last fall with Magpie Aviation based in Hayward, which is where the ill-fated flight originally departed before taking off again from Half Moon Bay.
Petit’s family described her as a native of Biddeford, Maine, who is survived by her brother Curtis and her parents, Kim and Peter Petit. She graduated from high school in Biddeford in 2015 and attended the University of Vermont in Burlington, where she studied psychology and neuroscience.
“It was at UVM that her adventurous, free-spirited and curious personality allowed her to develop into the creative and brave leader that she was,” her family said. “She interned at the local nonprofit Lund, supporting and advocating for women and families experiencing poverty, substance use and abuse. This ignited her passion for women’s health and equity.”
Signs of a crash first surfaced shortly after 7 p.m. Jan. 14 when a witness called authorities to report a small propeller plane flying erratically near Half Moon Bay Airport and Moss Beach Distillery, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. The caller reportedly heard the engine sputter out before the aircraft fell out of sight.
Rescuers from the Coast Guard and the sheriff’s office combed the waters that night and the following morning but eventually suspended their search. Some pieces of wreckage washed ashore near the supposed location of the crash.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident and typically releases a preliminary crash report within 30 days.
The plane was registered to Oakland-based Winged Wallabies Inc., according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry. The flight-tracking website FlightAware indicates the plane took off from Hayward Executive Airport on Sunday afternoon, then landed at the Half Moon Bay Airport about a half-hour later.
Petit’s family described her as an avid outdoor adventurer and said that while in Vermont, she turned a job at a local surf shop into a founding role with a business incubator called Hula and a corresponding venture capital fund The Fund at Hula. She also co-founded the agricultural startup Burlington Bio.
She met Ferrier while living in Burlington, where he was working on electric aircraft with Beta Technologies. Along with their dog Kane, they moved to the Bay Area in February 2023, where Petit took on a job as an analyst with RH Capital, focusing on investments to improve “innovation, access and equity across reproductive and maternal health.” Ferrier got a gig pursuing his own calling at an aviation firm in the East Bay.
The couple got engaged Sept. 27.
“In true Cassidy fashion, she planned to surf in her wedding gown following the ceremony; a testament to her fiery spirit and love for once-in-a-lifetime experiences,” the Petit family said.
On what would have been their wedding day, the couple will be memorialized by family and friends in the Burlington area, first at Hula and then at Beta Technologies.