Friend remembers Ontario cadet who died in vehicle incident as ‘class clown’

Andrei Honciu, 22, was in the vehicle with Jack Hogarth, Broden Murphy and Andres Salek when it entered the waters that border the campus in Kingston, Ont.

TORONTO — One of four officer cadets who died when their vehicle plunged into water is being remembered as an outgoing athlete who was proud of the hard work he put in at Canada’s Royal Military College.

Andrei Honciu had a special way of making people comfortable and acted like a “well-trained class clown,” his high school friend Noah Kim said in an interview.

“He was just one of those people who would make everyone laugh.”

Honciu, 22, was in the vehicle with Jack Hogarth, Broden Murphy and Andres Salek when it entered the waters that border the campus in Kingston, Ont. Each of the men, who were poised to graduate, died early Friday.

National Defence has released few details about the fatal incident, saying only that the four died after the single vehicle entered the waters at Point Frederick on campus at about 2 a.m. An investigation is ongoing.

Hogarth was in military and strategic studies and hoped to be an officer in an armoured regiment, the Defence Department said.

Murphy, a business administration student, was working to become an aerospace environment controller. Salek, a student of military and strategic studies, also wanted to be an armoured officer.

Honciu also studied business administration and planned to be a logistics officer.