Gerry Mosley dedicated his life to flying, as an aircraft mechanic, airport manager and flight instructor. Steve Davis was a licensed pilot and aircraft mechanic who worked as a firefighter and auxiliary sheriff’s deputy.

They also were friends, and died together Tuesday when the single-engine airplane they were in crashed near the Copiah County Airport soon after takeoff, a family member and authorities said.

The investigation into the cause of the crash continued Wednesday. A call to the Federal Aviation Administration was not immediately returned.

Mosley managed the Copiah County airport, a small facility between Crystal Springs and Hazlehurst used by private aircraft, and had his airplane maintenance business there, his sister-in-law, Becky Buckley, said Wednesday.

Aviation “was his passion,” Buckley said. “He’s been doing it for as long as I’ve known him.”

Davis worked for Mosley and as a firefighter for Brookhaven Fire Department, she said.

“Both of them were just really good guys,” Buckley said. “They were both very meticulous in what they did.”

Buckley said the plane’s engine quit shortly after take off and it clipped a tree, flipped over and caught fire in an open field. She wasn’t sure what type of aircraft it was.

Mosley leaves behind a wife and five children, Buckley said. Davis had a young daughter. Some of them were at the airport when the plane took off but did not see the crash because it didn’t happen on the facility grounds, Buckley said.

Buckley said funeral arrangements were incomplete pending the completion of the investigation into the cause of the crash.