‘Indiana Jones’ actor Christian Oliver, daughters die in plane crash

Hollywood actor Christian Oliver, his two young daughters, and their pilot have died in a plane crash near the Caribbean island, the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines police force announced.

Oliver, whose birth name was Christian Klepser, was 51. His daughters Madita and Annik were 12 and 10, respectively. Pilot Robert Sachs also died in the crash, reports Variety.

They were the only passengers aboard the small, single-engine plane owned and piloted by Sachs, which crashed one nautical mile west of Petit Nevis, a small island in the Grenadines, on the afternoon of Thursday, 4 January.

As per Variety, the plane left from the J.F. Mitchell Airport in Paget Farm, Bequia, an island in the Grenadines, at around 12.11 pm, bound for St Lucia as its final destination.

“Moments after taking off, the aircraft experienced difficulties and plummeted into the ocean”, the Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines police force said in a statement. “Fishermen and divers from Paget Farm went to the scene of the incident in their boats to render assistance. The SVG coast guard was informed and quickly travelled to Paget Farm, Bequia, to lead rescue efforts.”

Variety further stated that the bodies of Oliver, his children and Sachs were recovered by the coast guard, and they were later pronounced dead by a medical official.

They were transported to St Vincent and taken to the Kingstown Mortuary, where post-mortem examinations will be done to determine the causes of death.

Oliver had dozens of credits to his name from the 1990s through the 2020s. He most recently appeared in last year’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and played the racecar driver Snake Oiler in Speed Racer. He also had roles in the drama series Valkyrie, Sense8, Inspector George Gently, The Baby-Sitters Club and Saved by the Bell: The New Class.