HALF MOON BAY — A San Francisco man has been identified by his family as one of four people who died in a plane crash off the shore of Half Moon Bay last Sunday, and whose longtime girlfriend is the only victim whose body has been recovered.
Isaac Zimmern, 27, was with his partner, Emma Willmer-Shiles, also 27 and living in San Francisco, when a single-engine, four-seater Cozy MK IV plane crashed into the ocean. Zimmern’s family identified him as a victim and confirmed his relationship with Willmer-Shiles in a statement to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Zimmern’s body has not been found, nor have two other occupants, including the pilot. All four people aboard the plane are presumed to be dead, according to the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, which is overseeing recovery efforts. The body of Willmer-Shiles was found by a commercial fishing crew the morning after the crash, and parts of the plane wreckage have since washed ashore.
According to his LinkedIn page and a biography posted on the website of Burrow, Zimmern’s Brooklyn-based employer, Zimmern was a 2014 graduate of Lowell High School who earned a bachelor’s degree in economics with a concentration in computer and data science from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2020. Zimmern’s work history also included four years working as a game operations lead for the Santa Cruz Warriors, the G-League franchise with the Golden State Warriors.
A witness called authorities at 7:13 p.m. Jan. 14 to report a small propeller plane flying erratically near Half Moon Bay Airport and Moss Beach Distillery, the sheriff’s office said. The caller reportedly heard the engine sputter out before it fell out of sight.
The Coast Guard sent a diver into the water, but did not locate the plane or people that night. A drone operated by sheriff’s office later found what was thought to be wreckage in the water. The Coast Guard searched a 28-square-mile area for about six hours; the sheriff’s office called off its search the following morning.
Authorities have yet to announce who was flying the plane, but an aircraft with the same tail number is registered to Oakland-based Winged Wallabies Inc., according to the Federal Aviation Administration registry.
FlightAware, a flight-tracking website indicates the plane took off from Hayward Executive Airport on Sunday afternoon, then landed at the Half Moon Bay Airport about a half-hour later. It was not clear when the plane took off again from Half Moon Bay.
The National Transportation Safety Board is conducting the crash investigation, and typically issues a preliminary report within 30 days.