Megan Hilty mourns her pregnant sister, brother-in-law and niece after they were killed in a seaplane crash on Sunday.
The family members of the “Smash” alum were three of the 10 passengers aboard the plane that crashed into Washington’s Puget Sound, the US Coast Guard confirmed Tuesday.
A search for the nine passengers and pilot Jason Winters found an unidentified female body before it was called off Monday.
It is not clear what caused the crash.
The family of Lauren Hilty’s husband Ross Mickel told a local news station that their “collective grief is unimaginable”.
The statement continued: “We are deeply saddened and beyond devastated by the loss of our beloved Ross Mickel, Lauren Hilty, [their daughter] Remy and their unborn son, Luca.”
The Washington State Wine Commission honored Mickel with a statement of his own, as he has owned Ross Andrew Wineries since 1999.
“Ross had an incredible impact on the wine community in Washington and he will be greatly missed,” the statement said.
Megan, 41, has not yet publicly commented on the tragedy.
The Tony nominee also has a sister named Kristen Hilty. The three siblings were on holiday in Australia with their parents in June 2019.
“🎶 We are fa-mi-ly 🎶 I have all my sisters (and my mom and dad) with me! 🎶,” Megan wrote at the time with a family selfie on Instagram. “I can’t believe I’ll be singing at the Sydney Opera House in two days!!! And to make it even better, I have my family here to live this Australian adventure with me!”
The Broadway star has two children of her own and starts her family with husband Brian Gallagher after they tied the knot in November 2013.
The couple welcomed daughter Viola, now 7, and son Ronan, now 5, in September 2014 and March 2017 respectively.
While having children wasn’t part of Megan’s original “plan,” she told her Instagram followers in May 2019 that she changed her mind after meeting Gallagher.
“I always had this thought in my head that there was no room in my life for anything other than my career and I was so wrong,” she explained.
“Life never goes quite the way you expect it to. I am in a constant polarizing state of feeling overwhelmingly grateful to work and a deep sense of longing to be home.”