A 68-year-old man who almost accompanied Cory Lidle on his fatal flight in New York City last month died in a plane crash in California on Tuesday.

According to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, Bob Cartwright, whose friend and personal pilot died in the plane crash that also killed the New York Yankees pitcher, and two other men died when their private plane crashed into the shoreline of Big Bear Lake, near Cartwright's mountain home in Sugarloaf, Calif.

Last month Cartwright's friend, Tyler Stanger, invited him to a playoff game between the Yankees and Detroit Tigers, but Cartwright couldn't make it. Lidle and Stanger died Oct. 11 when their plane crashed into an apartment building in New York City.

"I was supposed to be on that plane," Cartwright told friends at the time, according to the Daily Bulletin.

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