San Diego aircraft crash: What we know about the victims, including 3 Sound Talent Group employees

San Diego (KABC) – While the examination of a fatal aircraft crash in San Diego continues to learn more about some of the victims, including three employees of a music agency.

On Friday, the Sound Talent Group, which has represented important alternative bands in Pop-Punk, Metal and Hard Rock, said the co-founder of the agency, Dave Shapiro, and the booking members Kendall Fortner and Emma Lynn Huke were killed in the crash on Thursday.

On the website of the San Diego Medical Examiner's Office, 36-year-old Celina Marie Rose Kenyon was listed as a victim.

Two other people on board the aircraft that were not identified are suspected as dead.

We know the following about the employees of the sound talent group who were killed in the crash.

Dave Shapiro

Shapiro was a co-founder of the sound talent group with Tim Borror and Matt Andersen in 2018.

The 42-year-old had a pilot license and, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, was listed as the owner of the aircraft.

Shapiro was a strong lawyer for independent musicians and co -founders of the National Independent Talent Organization. He was included in the list of “30 -30” list in 2012 by Billboard, in which rising stars were recognized in conversation.

Shapiro grew up in the “Blattdeged Hardge Hardcore” scene in the state of New York, a subculture that does not use drugs and alcohol in response to the mainstream punk.

In the high school he founded a band with his friends and was signed at Victory Records. They toured for a few years in which he made connections in the music industry that would help his foray on the business side.

Shapiro said he was immediately enthusiastic about aviation after taking his first intro flight at the age of 22. He seemed to love music and fly with the same passion, at one point an office of his talent agency in a hangar in San Diego.

Flying “helps me concentrate and helps me not to be distracted by all the nonsense of the world, and whatever is going on outside of the aircraft does not matter in these moments,” said Shapiro in a podcast interview from 2020.

Shapiro had a flight school called Velocity Aviation and a record label, Velocity Records.

He offered flights in San Diego and Homer, Alaska, where he and his wife Julia Pawlik Shapiro had a home according to his online posts.

Shapiro married his wife in 2016 in the small town of Talkeetna, Alaska. They took their wedding licenses, got on a plane and flew to a glacier in the Denali National Park, which landed with skis that were strapped on the wheels of the plane.

“When I met Dave, we immediately connected the unconventional lifestyle and our constant need for adventure,” she wrote in a blog post.

In 2019 he recorded on Instagram that he received his pilot assessment from Airline Transport, the highest level of certification in the United States

“Although I have a career and do not plan to change myself, I want to learn more and more and be a better pilot,” he wrote. He was also an adrenaline junkie who enjoyed the base jump.

Kendall Fortner

Fortner's love of music started at a young age when her father brought her to concerts.

According to Sound Talent Group, the 24-year-old loved all the genres, from Doo-Wop to Classic Rock.

She taught herself to play several instruments, including the piano and guitar. She was born in Glendale and grew up in Santa Clarita.

Fortner visited the West Ranch High School before completing the San Diego State University with a degree in business in 2021.

After Fortner was interned at the Sound Talent Group in college, he joined the company right after completing the conclusion as a booking employee.

“In her teenage years, Kendall had already shown interest in working on the business side of music, and the job at STG was a perfect fit that showed her work morality and its ability to plan tours and festivals nationwide,” said the music agency.

Fortner was described as “the life of the party” and as someone who illuminated any room she entered.

She is survived by her parents Gary and Kristin, her brother Justin and his wife Hannah and her brother Jordan, his wife Kailey and her son Theo.

Emma Lynn Huke

Huke was born and grew up in Orange County and knew very early on that she wanted to work in the music industry.

She was an enthusiastic dancer and part of a national championship team at the Santa Margarita Catholic High School.

After graduating from the University of Oregon in 2022, Huke completed several internships in the music industry with a degree in journalism before he came to a sound talent group as a booking employee in 2024.

“There was nothing that Emma loved more than live music,” said the agency. “She worked hard to save money to travel to concerts and festivals. And while she loved all music genres, her favorite artists were to see live, Taylor Swift and 1975.”

Huke also helped to organize, plan and promote some of the agency's largest tours. Customers and friends called Huke “a natural force” that brought everyone joy and light in their presence.

Huke is survived by her parents Tim and Allison and her younger siblings Ellis.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.