US skateboarder, Belgian influencer killed in Iceland plane crash

American skateboarder Josh Neuman and Belgian influencer Nicola Bellavia were among the four people killed when a sightseeing plane crashed into a lake in Iceland, authorities in the North Atlantic island nation said Monday.

Neuman was on the Cessna 172 plane to create commercial content for the Belgian fashion brand Suspicious Antwerp along with the company’s sponsorship manager Tim Alings and Bellavia when the aircraft crashed. 

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The pilot, identified as 49-year-old Haraldur Diego, was considered one of Iceland’s most prominent aviators and a pioneer of photography tours.

Police said the bodies of the four men were discovered on Sunday in Lake Thingvallavatn, which is Iceland’s second-largest lake with the use of an autonomous submarine and sonar technology.

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The aircraft didn’t send a distress signal after disappearing from radar on Thursday.

Over 1,000 members of Iceland’s Search and Rescue organization helped search for the aircraft, which was found on Saturday in a portion of the lake about 30 miles east of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik.

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Police said poor weather has prevented divers retrieving the bodies, found at depths of up to 157 feet.

“For the safety of divers we have to wait until the weather improves,” police chief Oddur Arnason told The Associated Press.

Neuman, 22, was best known for creating one of the the most-watched skateboarding videos on YouTube. His channel has almost 1.2 million subscribers.

He reportedly began making videos at the age of 12 with his father’s video camera and later dropped out of college to pursue a career in extreme sports and filmmaking. In 2020, he published a sponsored video for Suspicious Antwerp.

With inputs from the Associated Press