An aspiring model with ties to San Diego was among six people in their 20s who died in an airplane crash in Arizona Monday night.
Mariah Sunshine Coogan was on board the small plane when it crashed on the grounds of the TPC Scottsdale Golf Course shortly after taking off.
Coogan was from Northern California and lived in Pacific Beach for a short time before moving to Puerto Rico about a year and a half ago, neighbors said. She last lived in Los Angeles.
Those who knew her say she will definitely be missed.
“Mariah was just one of those people you meet once in a lifetime,” her aunt Kelly Coogan said. “We're really in shock about the whole thing.”
Her aunt lives north of San Francisco with the rest of her family. According to her Instagram page, Mariah loved to travel and had a growing social media following with more than 30,000 on that platform alone.
“She loved life and was just living it to the absolute fullest,” Kelly said.
Local
Mariah was flying to Las Vegas from an electronic music festival in Phoenix on Monday but she and five other passengers never made it.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are still investigating what caused the crash.
