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A young pilot died in a “fluke” accident shortly after a group of skydivers jumped from her plane in upstate New York.
The Niagara County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that Melanie Georger, 26, was killed while at the controls of her plane, a single-engine Cessna, which crashed on the Niagara Scenic Parkway about 15 miles from Niagara Falls on Saturday.
The pilot was in the process of trying to land her plane when the incident occurred.
“Where it landed was just off the parkway. We look to the west near Fort Niagara, it’s full of soccer players today.” Michael Filicetti, the county sheriff said in an interview with WIVB on Sunday.
“We’re lucky where it landed, but it is an unfortunate incident.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation into the incident.
The victim had been working for Skydive the Falls in Youngstown, New York. One of the divers, Jeffrey Walker, said he jumped out of her plane about 30 minutes before it crashed.
“Everything was great,” he said. “It was great weather, low winds, very calm winds. Everybody was excited. Everybody was in a good mood.”
The passenger said that he thought something went wrong after the plane quickly crashed.
“It’s not like skydiving planes once a week fall out of the sky and you just kind of dodge it,” he said. “This is a fluke accident. Something went wrong.”
Walker said he realized that he was close to death once he saw what had happened.
“For some reason, God left me on Earth and I’m just blessed to still be around,” he told the TV station. “It’s just an eerie feeling that I was on that plane literally a half-hour before it crashed. Why didn’t it crash with us on it? Why didn’t it crash with more people on it? It’s surreal.”
Walker described Georger as a good pilot who was great at her job.
“I really feel bad for the business and the company she was working for, because they’re a great company,” he added. “I thought they did a great job training.”
Georger’s father, Paul Georger, released a statement on Facebook following her death.
“Friends and family, my life as I know it ended today. My beloved daughter, my best friend and one of the two lights of my life passed away suddenly today,” he wrote.
The tribute continued: “Melanie was a pilot, on the cusp of realizing her dream to fly for the airlines. She was doing what she loved, flying for a local skydiving company when her plane crashed. She had discharged her passengers and was flying back to pick another load when she crashed. Kelli, Tim and I are devastated. She was only 26.”
