LOS ANGELES, March 23 (UPI) — Former Bachelor contestant Erin Storm has died at the age of 41 from a plane crash.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department confirmed the news to Entertainment Tonight that a small plane went down Monday that was “engulfed in flames.”
According to reports, Storm was flying an Airborne XT-912 and crashed soon after taking off from the Hawthorne Municipal Airport.
CBS Los Angeles caught up with eyewitness Byron Mayes and coworkers at Best Drilling and Pump who witnessed the plane crash. “All of a sudden, my partner started yelling, ‘Watch out, there’s a plane coming!’ and it looked like the plane veered up, lost control and hit a couple feet away from the truck, a couple feet away from us,” Mayes said, before mentioning how he and others pulled the pilot, Storm out from the aircraft in cardiac arrest.
Storm was then transferred to a trauma center where she was pronounced dead. The former reality star was working as a pilot for Pacific Blue Air, an aircraft training facility based at the Hawthorne Airport.
Storm appeared in Season 12 of The Bachelor in 2008, competing for the love of Matt Grant. She was eliminated in week three with Grant eventually giving contestant Shayne Lamas the final rose, but later ending the relationship.
Speaking with Entertainment Tonight, Grant mentioned how shocked he was to hear of Storm’s passing. “We were lucky to have Erin on Season 12. She was genuine, self-assured, beautiful and hilarious,” he said. “My thoughts and prayers go out to her loved ones.”
