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One N.J. plane-crash victim was 'Free Willy' trainer

EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - One of two men killed in a plane crash in Ocean County last week was the mammal trainer who prepared Keiko, the whale in the movie Free Willy , to be released into the wild. Stephen Claussen, 41, of Seattle, was in New Jersey studying how proposed offshore wind turbines might affect birds and water mammals. Plane owner John Ambroult of Eastham, Mass., was also killed in Saturday's crash near Eagles Nest Airport in Eagleswood. Two other marine-mammal experts, Jacalyn Toth Brown, 28, of Pemberton Township, and Juan Carlos Salinas, 43, of Mexico City, survived. A cell-phone call from Salinas at 4:03 p.m. led state police to the wrecked Cessna in dense woods in the Pinelands. - AP

EAGLESWOOD TOWNSHIP, N.J. - One of two men killed in a plane crash in Ocean County last week was the mammal trainer who prepared Keiko, the whale in the movie

Free Willy

, to be released into the wild.

Stephen Claussen, 41, of Seattle, was in New Jersey studying how proposed offshore wind turbines might affect birds and water mammals. Plane owner John Ambroult of Eastham, Mass., was also killed in Saturday's crash near Eagles Nest Airport in Eagleswood. Two other marine-mammal experts, Jacalyn Toth Brown, 28, of Pemberton Township, and Juan Carlos Salinas, 43, of Mexico City, survived. A cell-phone call from Salinas at 4:03 p.m. led state police to the wrecked Cessna in dense woods in the Pinelands. - AP