Thierry Thys

In 1956, he and his brother Edouard took over a struggling, seven-person metal casting company in Berkeley,[1] moved it to San Leandro, California, expanded it, and renamed it Precision Founders Incorporated (PFI).

He served 32 years as PFI's Vice President of Marketing, developing the company's sales force and acquired many large customers, chiefly in the areas of nuclear power, aircraft engines and aerospace.

[2] An avid pilot from the age of 14, Thys held private and commercial certificates with instrument rating for single engine, land and sea, multi-engine aircraft, sailplanes and helicopters.

The aircraft was discovered the following evening in a Civil Air Patrol search in remote site in the White Knob Mountains at an elevation of about 9,250 feet (2,820 m).

[5] On August 21 the Idaho Air National Guard provided a helicopter to transport a Custer County Search and Rescue team, which reached the crash site at about 11:21 a.m. Thys was found with the wreckage of the aircraft the morning about six miles (10 km) north of Copper Basin near Mackay.