Updated on January 22, 2024.
A young leader in the Burlington startup scene and her fiancé, a test pilot and engineer for Beta Technologies, were killed on January 14 in a plane crash off the coast of northern California, where they’d recently moved.
Cassidy Petit, a 26-year-old University of Vermont graduate, was an early employee at Hula, the Burlington coworking campus and business incubator. She also counseled Vermont startups as a manager of Hula’s venture capital arm. Petit, UVM professor
Rachael Floreani and others cofounded the startup Burlington Bio, a company that is developing technology to produce lab-grown meat.
Petit and her fiancé, 27-year-old Lochie Ferrier, were aboard a Cozy Mark IV, a four-seat light aircraft, when it crashed into the waters of Half Moon Bay, south of San Francisco, shortly after takeoff on January 14. Ferrier had recently purchased the plane, which another hobbyist built in 2007.
California authorities have recovered just one body — that of 27-year-old San Francisco resident Emma Willmer-Shiles. But Petit’s most recent employer, the California venture capital firm RH Capital, announced the deaths of Petit and Ferrier in an online post.
Petit and Ferrier were planning to marry in Hawaii later this month, P
etit’s family wrote in an obituary released Monday.
As a test pilot for Beta in 2022, Ferrier helped fly the South Burlington startup’s experimental electric aircraft from Vermont to Kentucky
so U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg could check out the prototype. Ferrier left Beta in early 2023 to take a job at Magpie Aviation, a California-based electric aviation company.
Ferrier rejoined Beta in December as a systems engineer, according to his LinkedIn profile. A spokesperson for Beta declined to comment.
click to enlarge - Courtesy of Sarah Kjelleran
- Cassidy Petit
Petit was one of few young women working in Vermont’s small venture-capital scene. At age 24, she was the youngest person named in
Vermont Business Magazine’s 2021
list of rising stars. Last year, Petit began working for RH Capital, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage startups focused on women’s health and health equity.
Petit, who many knew as “CP,” worked tirelessly to support startup companies while in Vermont, said Sam Roach-Gerber, vice president of Vermont Center for Emerging Technologies.
Roach-Gerber said Petit exuded confidence and was unafraid to speak up in an intimidating industry.
“Meeting someone that impressive really lights a fire. It makes you want to be better,” Roach-Gerber said. “I think she did that for a lot of people. And she’ll be greatly, greatly missed.”
California authorities assembled near Moss Beach last Saturday around 7 p.m. after witnesses reported seeing a small aircraft flying erratically, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office. Crews searched by land, sea and air. They eventually found plane debris near the coastline. The following morning, someone on a commercial fishing boat spotted the body of a woman, later identified by the San Mateo County Coroner’s Office as Willmer-Shiles.
Family members later identified a fourth victim as Willmer-Shiles’ longtime partner, 27-year-old Isaac Zimmern of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating what caused the crash. A preliminary report will be filed within 30 days, the agency said, though the investigation could take one or two years to complete.
A memorial service for Petit and Ferrier will be held on the Hula campus at 10 a.m. on January 28 — what would have been their wedding day. A celebration of life will be held immediately after at Beta Technologies headquarters in South Burlington.
A donor-advised fund is being established in Petit’s name at the Vermont Community Foundation, her family said.