Glen de Vries, entrepreneur who traveled to space on Blue Origin flight, dies in New Jersey plane crash

Glen de Vries, a businessman who flew to space last month with Jeff Bezos' company Blue Origin, died in a small plane crash on Thursday. He was 49, according to New Jersey State Police.

The plane crashed in Sussex County, New Jersey, just before 3 p.m. De Vries and 54-year-old Thomas P. Fischer were killed. The FAA is investigating the crash, state police said.

De Vries, a private pilot in his spare time, was trained as a molecular biologist and co-founded Medidata Solutions, the most-used clinical research platform in the world. The company's software has managed more than 25,000 clinical trials involving more than seven million patients. Dassault Systèmes acquired the company in 1999 for $5.8 billion.