Young NY pilot living her ‘dream’ dies in crash moments after releasing a set of skydivers: ‘Why didn’t it crash with us on it?’
A promising young New York pilot “on the cusp” of living out her dream of becoming an airline pilot died moments after she released a set of skydivers to jump from her plane.
Melanie Georger, 26, was killed onboard her single-engine Cessna when it crashed on the Niagara Scenic Parkway about 15 miles from Niagara Falls, the Niagara Country Sheriff’s Office wrote in a statement.
Georger was the only person onboard during the crash and was “heading back to land,” according to officials.
“Where it landed was just off the parkway. We look to the west near Fort Niagara, it’s full of soccer players today,” Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti told WIVB Sunday.
“We’re lucky where it landed, but it is an unfortunate incident.”
The cause of the fatal crash is still under investigation.
Georger was working as a pilot for Skydive the Falls in Youngstown, NY, when she took off with a group of skydivers Saturday morning.
“Everything was great,” Jeffrey Walker, who jumped out of the plane just 30 minutes before it crashed, told the outlet.
“It was great weather, low winds, very calm winds. Everybody was excited. Everybody was in a good mood.”
Walker said he “didn’t know what to expect” since it was his first time skydiving, but shared that Georger’s confidence as a pilot and encouragement in the air calmed his nerves before jumping.
“I never even got nervous at the door ready to jump,” Walker said.
However, just 30 minutes after he and the other skydivers jumped, the young pilot was killed in the crash, leaving Walker to question what happened in the short time after he last saw Georger.
“It’s not like skydiving planes once a week fall out of the sky and you just kind of dodge it,” Walker said. “This is a fluke accident. Something went wrong.”
The tragedy has left him shaken that he could have been minutes away from dying if he had decided not to jump.
“For some reason God left me on Earth and I’m just blessed to still be around,” Walker told the outlet.
“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 also said he gave the young pilot “props for wanting to do what she was doing.”
“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.”
In the wake of the tragedy, the young pilot’s father released a heartbreaking statement on Facebook just hours after his daughter died “doing what she loved.”
“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,” Paul Georger wrote.
“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.”
“My life is much darker today and will remain so for a long time. To my tweety pie, my girlie, my beloved and my heart, I’m already looking forward to the day that we reunite and I will have a huge hole in my heart and a never ending ache until then. Stars and butterflies, my love,” Paul Georger concluded.
Georger, a former system engineer for Raytheon, received a bachelor’s degree in aerospace, aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the University of Buffalo in 2020, according to her LinkedIn.
She also received a certificate from the Georgia Institute of Technology for fundamentals of flight test and evaluation.
The young aviator was licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration as a commercial pilot for single-engine and multi-engine planes and was a certified flight instructor.
The FAA confirmed in a statement that the airplane was a single-engine Cessna 208B.
The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the crash.
With Post wires
