An Arizona biotechnology entrepreneur and his 12-year-old son died Saturday when their airplane crashed during an attempted landing at a southern Colorado airport.

Jeff Morhet, 43, and his son, both of Chandler, Arizona, were flying to the 2012 EAA AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin – a giant air show that attracts thousands of flying enthusiasts from all over the country every year. Mr. Morhet was piloting a CJ-6A aircraft, possibly for entry into one of the air show’s show plane competitions. He and his son were the only two people aboard the plane.

According to the Pueblo Chieftain, Mr. Morhet’s plane and three other airplanes previously departed from Grand Junction, Colo., and sought to land at Spanish Peaks Airfield general aviation airport near Walsenberg, Colo., to refuel. The Chieftain reported that something went wrong with Mr. Morhet’s airplane, causing it to crash about half a mile west of the airport.

A picture published on the Chieftain’s website shows the wreckage in a flat scrubby field. Authorities haven’t determined why the plane went down, but the crash remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.

According to The Republic, Mr. Morhet served as CEO of InNexus Biotechnology, a position for which he was recognized as an Arizona Business Leader of the Year in 2008 by the Arizona Technology Council, the Arizona Department of Commerce, and then-Governor Janet Napolitano. He recently started a new life-sciences company, Diomics Corp., with offices in Chandler, Arizona and La Jolla, California. Mr. Morhet also helped start and advise Chandler’s Innovations technology incubator, which attracted a number of technology and research companies to the city. He is survived by his wife and three other children.

Sources:

The Pueblo Chieftain
The Republic

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