The UNC student also had a photography business. It was so successful he dropped out of Chapel Hill to pursue it. He was making good money and traveling the world. A promising life cut short.
FYI: they have a national investigative board very similar to the NTSB and UK AAIB which put out reports. But it can be hit or miss if it's in English or Icelandic. If interested here is link:
I kind of wondered that myself. Give it a generous 780lb useful load with 30 gallons of fuel and you have 600 lbs left. 150 each person.
There's a pretty wide variety in 172s... Just sayin' and this probably wasn't the first time up with four people. The plane clearly got to the crash site, so I'd suspect something other than weight issues, even if they were above the legal limits.
That would be a rare thing, without an STC. Ours had right at 900 lbs.
It may well have, as EASA/FAA have an agreement regarding those, and Iceland is under EASA. And likely Icelanders aren't as fat as we are in the USA.
The flight was in the morning per another report. They found the aircraft at 11pm local.
Per a report posted here the 172 flight was part of a commercial content shoot. And there was also another "tourist" flight accident in Peru at the Nazca lines that killed 7.
Even if they get out [and one report suggests that all four did] the water temperature isn't conducive to swimming for more than a few minutes. I'm assuming they didn't have PFDs.
