‘Everything was passionate for him’: Uncle of pilot killed in Beverly plane crash remembers nephew

BEVERLY, Mass. — The family of a Massachusetts pilot who died in a recent small plane crash spoke with Boston 25 News on Sunday.

30-year-old Geoffrey Andrews tragically died in the crash shortly after he and a passenger took off from Beverly Regional Airport Thursday morning.

The passenger was seriously injured and taken to a local hospital.

Geoffrey’s uncle, Simon Andrews, tells Boston 25 that Geoffrey was an experienced pilot of nearly 13 years, and a husband with his first baby due in October.

“Geoffrey did everything full throttle, as fast as possible and nearly always with his mouth open,” Simon said. “The hardest thing in choosing a photograph was trying to find photographs of him with his mouth closed because everything was passionate for him.”

Geoffrey was smart, too, and worked as a scientist at MIT Lincoln Laboratory.

“He was a rising star there, won a lot of awards there,” Simon said.

Taking after his father, Geoffrey also loved flying planes.

“Anyone that could have been more suited to being a pilot is hard to imagine,” Simon explained. “If anyone could have got out of this situation it was Geoffrey, he even had some aerobatic training, so he knew his way around a plane.”

Thursday morning, Simon said Geoffrey decided to fly to a camping trip in Vermont with a friend.

Geoffrey was flying a Mooney M20 aircraft, a small plane that Simon said his nephew actually preferred to fly.

Just before 8 a.m., the NTSB said the plane crashed on the side of Sam Fonzo Drive just after taking off from Beverly Regional Airport.

Geoffrey died on scene.

The location of the crash is roughly a two-minute drive from the airport.

“As far as we can tell, it was just catastrophic engine failure. The plane had only just been recertified three weeks ago, so certified as safe to fly and um this was the first trip he’d taken since then.” Simon said.

A GoFundMe has been created to raise money for Geoffrey’s wife, Gentry, and their baby.

“You wake up as perfect family one morning and then suddenly there’s an enormous hole that can never be filled,” Simon told Boston 25.

The NTSB is investigating the cause of the crash and will release a preliminary report sometime next month.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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