Young Female Pilot Encouraged Skydivers Before They Jumped, Then Died As Her Plane Crashed Near Niagara Falls

A young female pilot died in what was described as a “fluke” accident in a skydiving flight after her passengers jumped from the aircraft near Niagara Falls.

Melanie Georger, 26, was the only person on board when the single-engine Cessna crashed Saturday, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

Georger, of Towanda, New York, was working to become a commercial pilot, her father said Saturday in a statement on Facebook.

“My beloved daughter, my best friend and one of the two lights of my life passed away suddenly today,” Paul Georger wrote. “Melanie was a pilot, on the cusp of realising her dream to fly for the airlines. She was doing what she loved, flying for a local skydiving company, when her plane crashed.”

Melanie was trying to land her plane when it crashed. “Where it landed was just off the parkway. We look to the west near Fort Niagara, it’s full of soccer players today. We’re lucky where it landed, but it is an unfortunate incident,” the county sheriff, Michael Filicetti, was quoted as saying by WIVB.

One of the skydivers on a flight with Georger right before the one that crashed said he felt blessed to be alive and lamented that her life was cut short.

“Why didn’t it happen when I was up there? Why didn’t it happen when we were all on the plane?” said first-time jumper Jeffrey Walker. He described the events as “surreal.”

He said was unconcerned by the pilot’s youth, and that she checked in with him personally and shared encouraging words about his tandem skydiving partner, boosting his confidence before he jumped.

“I give her props for wanting to do what she was doing,” he said. “I really feel bad for the business and the company she was working for, because they’re a great company. I thought the did a great job training.”

The Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement that the airplane was a single-engine Cessna 208B. It crashed near a road in Youngstown, fewer than 15 miles (24 kilometres) from Niagara Falls. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the crash.