The bodies of Chris Cline, 60, his daughter and five others who died in a helicopter crash in the Bahamas were seen being brought to shore after being pulled from the ocean on Thursday as more details of their deaths emerged.
Cline was flying from the Bahamas to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, when the aircraft plummeted in the early hours of Thursday morning.
It remains unclear what caused the crash but all seven people on board died.
According to local reports, they took off from Grand Cay Island at around 2am and were eager to get back to Florida because someone in the group was ill. The pilot made no formal request to fly, they said, and it is unclear if there was a mayday signal.
The billionaire’s youngest daughter Kameron, who graduated college in May, was on board along with her friend, Delaney Wykle, and two other women who are yet to be identified.
David Jude, one of Cline’s friends from West Virginia, also died as did an as yet unidentified pilot.
As news of the crash spread on Friday, local politicians and businessmen paid tribute to Cline as generous and hardworking.
Chris Cline, the billionaire coal tycoon from West Virginia who once dated Tiger Woods’s ex-wife Elin Nordegren, died on Thursday along with his daughter, Kameron, who had recently graduated college
David Jordan (left) and Delaney Wykle (right) also perished in the crash. David was a friend of Cline’s and Delaney was friends with his daughter
The bodies of Chris Cline and six others who were killed in a helicopter crash in the Bahamas on Thursday are shown arriving on shore after being retrieved from the water
Not all of the victims’ names have yet been released and it remains unconfirmed which of Cline’s two daughters was on board with him
Bahamian officials are working to recover the aircraft which is still in the water
Bahamian emergency workers are shown bringing the bodies to shore on Thursday night
The cause of the crash remains unclear and it is not known if a mayday signal was sent out
The bodies arrived on shore in a police boat on Thursday night after the crash was reported when Cline and the party did not make it to Florida
The coal tycoon, who would have turned 61 today, previously dated Tiger Woods’ ex Elin Nordegren. Nordegreb, who is expecting her first child with boyfriend Jordan Cameron, has not commented on the accident.
Cline’s death was announced on Twitter by West Virginia Governor Jim Justice who paid tribute to him.
‘Today we lost a WV superstar and I lost a very close friend,’ Justice wrote on his Twitter account.
‘Our families go back to the beginning of the Cline empire – Pioneer Fuel.
‘Chris Cline built an empire and on every occasion was always there to give.
‘What a wonderful, loving, and giving man,’ EH SAID.
Friends have since paid tribute to Delaney (left) and Kameron (right). Both recently graduated college
Daniel Linville, a state lawmaker in West Virginia, tweeted: ‘Very sad to hear of the passing of Chris Cline.
‘He was very successful in business. He had been a big supporter of Marshall University and many charities in Southern WV.’
Cline was the founder of Foresight Energy, the company that has grown into a coal mining empire.
In 2015, he sold most of his stake in the publicly traded company for $1.4billion, according to Forbes. He died with an estimated net worth of $1.8billion.
Cline was married twice and had two sons and two daughters.
Cline is seen above on his Gulfstream Aerospace jet in Carlinville, Illinois in 2010
Elin Nordegren and Chris Cline pictured on vacation in St Moritz in March 2016 while dating
Cline was reportedly in a helicopter with six other people. The helicopter took off from the Bahamian island of Grand Cay, which is part of the Abaco Islands (seen above)
His first wife, Sabrina, died of breast cancer in 1987. He remarried in 1993 and then divorced seven years later.
In 2013, Cline began a relationship with Nordegren, 39, who divorced the legendary golfer Woods in 2010.
The couple was together for a year before splitting up. In 2016, they reconciled before once again breaking up.
Kameron was one of the billionaire’s four children
Nordegren, 39, was photographed recently with her new love interest, former NFL star Jordan Cameron.
The two are soon expecting a child.
‘What he accomplished in the coal mining industry was nothing short of amazing,’ said Gary White, a former coal company president, said of Cline on Thursday.
‘He started working for his father (a small-contract miner) and rose to be one of the titans in the industry.
‘Notwithstanding his success, he never forgot his humble beginnings.’
Cline attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia before dropping out at the age of 22 to go into the coal business.
He donated money to the university, which released a statement expressing sorrow over his death.
‘The entire Marshall community is in disbelief and shock over the sad news of this tragic accident that took the life of a prominent Son of Marshall and so many others,’ said Marshall University President Jerome Gilbert.
‘Our hearts are heavy.’
‘Today we lost a WV superstar and I lost a very close friend,’ Justice wrote on his Twitter account
Cline attended Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia before dropping out at the age of 22 to go into the coal business. Jerome Gilbert, the university president, paid tribute to Cline on Twitter
Daniel Linville, a state lawmaker in West Virginia, tweeted: ‘Very sad to hear of the passing of Chris Cline. He was very successful in business. He had been a big supporter of Marshall University and many charities in Southern WV’
Another Twitter user described Cline as a ‘giving man that cared deeply about the people of West Virginia’
Cole Landon tweeted: ‘Not only was he successful in what he did and wealthy, he was a great man at heart’
‘People literally have no idea how much WV will miss Chris Cline,’ tweeted another Twitter user
Cline first founded the Cline Group in 1990. The company operated a number of underground coal mines across the country. In 2003, Cline Group sold its interests in mining and process in Appalachia to focus on new mines in the Illinois Basin.
In 2006, he founded Foresight Energy, which relied on renewed interest in high sulfur and high Btu coal.
His success earned him the nickname ‘New King Coal.’
Cline said he didn’t mind the negative views of him held by the public in light of concerns that the burning of coal was contributing to climate change.
‘As far as the social acceptability of coal, I like to think I’m part of supplying the cheapest energy in America,’ Cline told Bloomberg in 2010.
Eventually, Foresight Energy amassed some three billion tons of coal reserves throughout Illinois and the Northern Appalachians.
In 2011, his charity, the Cline Family Foundation, donated $5million to West Virginia University’s athletic department and medical school.
That same year, he gave $5million to Marshall University for research on sports medicine.
Cline also donated $3.5million toward scholarships for Marshall student athletes.
Marshall paid tribute to Cline by inaugurating the Chris Cline Athletic Complex in 2014.
‘I’m devastated,’ Marshall’s athletic director, Mike Hamrick, said on Thursday.