BANGOR (AP) – Navy Lt. j.g. Jerry Smith got his first taste of flying while in high school. He took a trip in his native Greenville with Mackie Folsom of Folsom’s Air Service and he was hooked.

“That was one of the key times I remember that fueled his desire to fly,” said his older brother, Eric Smith. “I think he knew (then) he was going to look into flight school.”

The Navy aviator was doing what he loved, his brother said, when the E-2C Hawkeye turboprop plane carrying him and two fellow pilots crashed Wednesday during a training mission off the North Carolina coast.

Search crews found debris from the plane but no bodies. On Friday, the Navy changed the status of the three – Smith, 25; Lt. Cameron N. Hall, 30, of Natchitoches, La.; and Lt. Ryan K. Betton, 31, of Collinsville, Va. – from missing to dead.

The cause of the crash remains under investigation.

Smith was on the verge of completing his aircraft carrier qualification exercises when the plane went down in clear weather after launching from the USS Harry S. Truman.

“The bottom line is he was doing what he loves. Were proud of my brother and he was proud of what he did,” Eric Smith said.

Jerry Smith was a 1999 graduate of Penobscot Valley High School, where he played soccer and basketball.

He then was accepted to the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point, N.Y., graduating in 2003 with a dual major in mechanical and nautical engineering. Smith later applied to the U.S. Navy flight school in Lakehurst, N.J., earning his wings in May 2006.

His parents, high school teachers Carroll and Fonda Smith, and his younger sister, Maria, 20, visited him in Virginia in May. Smith was planning a trip home after completing his training and getting his naval assignment, his brother said.

Eric Smith said funeral arrangements would likely be completed within the next week.

“The thoughts and prayers of our family are with the other families, as well,” he said.

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Information from: Bangor Daily News, http://www.bangornews.com

AP-ES-08-18-07 1132EDT