Jeremy Brooks, a 22-year-old fishing guide from Santa Fe, New Mexico, had recently scored a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: a job at a Russian fishing lodge.
Brooks, who picked up his first fly-fishing rod when he was just 7 years old, prepared diligently for the coveted position. He spent a month in Washington State learning to cast with a new rod he bought specifically for the job, his best friend, Marco Rossetti, told the Santa Fe New Mexican.
But soon after arriving in Russia, Brooks’ dreams were cut short: On Monday, family and friends identified him as the sole American who died when a Russian plane crashed and burned on a Moscow runway Sunday evening.
LINK (via: The Daily Beast)
Poor boy. The moment I saw news of a Murmansk-bound, early May flight crashing the other day, I thought “Kola … start of season … fishing camps’ staff arriving…”. My condolences to his family and friends.
Very sad story. As an alumni of his alma mater, I find this story incredibly tragic. Myself, along with numerous other young men graduated from the same school and followed our passion to become professional fishing guides. From flying in planes daily in Bristol Bay, running jet boats in the remote regions of Alaska, Mongolia, South America and other regions around the globe, it is eye-opening that so few of us in the fraternity of fishing guides have had serious disasters. From what I have heard he was a very talented angler that was dedicated to his craft and embodied what it means to be a fisherman. After taking various sketchy flights to and from fishing destinations, I feel incredibly lucky to have never dealt with a serious emergency while chasing my passion as a fishing guide.
My condolences go out to his family and the fraternity of fishing guides world-wide that have have heavy hearts after reading this story. The saddest part of this story for me was the fact that he was in the back of the plane on a commercial flight from Moscow. Logically, this type of disaster would be more likely to happen in the remote corners of the globe where the infrastructure and equipment is not necessarily up to commercial grade. We can only hope that he is wading the river of his dreams in heaven.