At or about 1:30 PM, while on approach for landing, the helicopter crashed. The pilot, David Pearce and three passengers (Jeffrey Soffer, Paula Riordan, Daniel Riordan) were seriously injured, while a fourth passenger, an international tax and business attorney, Lance Valdez was killed (Bahamas Civil Aviation Department incident report). 

Valdez’s mother, Daria Pastouhkova Gogoleva who resides in Nassau, Bahamas, filed a wrongful death lawsuit. In her lawsuit she alleged that David Pearce, the licensed helicopter pilot wasn't flying the helicopter at the time of the crash and that Soffer was at the controls at the time of the crash. Although Soffer is a certified pilot to fly aircraft he was not certified by the FAA to fly a helicopter. 

Pastouhkova alleges that on that Thanksgiving Day, the pilot (David Pearce) flew to Marsh Harbor airport in the Bahamas with Lance Valdez, they landed and Soffer and the Riordan’s boarded the Aerospatiale Twin Star helicopter and that the pilot was informed by Valdez that Soffer wanted to pilot and fly the helicopter from Marsh Harbor to Bakers Bay Golf and Ocean Club on Great Guana Cay in the Abacos Island, Bahamas. It is also alleged Pearce believed that Soffer was a licensed and experienced helicopter pilot.