Stephen Matthew Claussen, who trained, fed and cared for Keiko during the movie-star orca's years in Oregon and Iceland, died Saturday in a plane crash.

Claussen, 41, of Seattle and two other passengers were aboard a small Cessna when it crashed about 12:30 or 1 p.m. in dense woods in Ocean County, N.J. The plane's owner and pilot, 60-year-old John Ambroult of Eastham, Mass., also died in the crash. Passengers, Jacalyn Toth Brown, 28, of Pemberton, N.J., and Juan Carlos Salinas, 43, of Mexico City, were seriously injured and being treated Tuesday in an Atlantic City hospital.

Claussen, Brown and Salinas were gathering data to assess what effects offshore wind turbines might have on marine mammals and birds. They conducted surveys worldwide for Texas-based Geo-Marine Inc.

The plane apparently crashed shortly after takeoff, but the wreckage was not discovered until a cell phone call from Salinas led rescuers to the crash site about 4:30 p.m., according to a spokesman for the National Transportation and Safety Board.

The youngest of five children, Claussen was born Oct. 3, 1966. A chef, he operated a Seattle restaurant for about five years and volunteered with Tacoma's Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium before his passion for animals overtook his cooking career. He joined the effort to give Keiko, the killer whale star of the movie "Free Willy," a shot at a better life in 1996.

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