Mere moments after releasing a load of skydivers, and sending them on their way with heartwarming words, a young pilot’s plane tragically crashed to Earth, killing her in the process.
Passenger Jeffery Walker, a first-time jumper, recalls the kindness of twenty-six-year-old Melanie Georger, the pilot who flew the plane from which he jumped. Just before he leapt out into the air, she checked in with him. Her warm demeanor boosted his confidence, and her gentle encouragement reassured him enough to take the leap. Because of Georger’s presence, Walker said to WIVB-TV, he never even got nervous.
Her youth never concerned him. She was, he said, “super nice” and seemed quite competent. The weather aloft was good, and winds were low.
But after the jump, as Georger was trying to land the plane in Youngstown, New York, she plowed into the Niagara Scenic Parkway, according to the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office.
The pilot was the only person aboard her Cessna at the time of impact. She died in the crash.
Walker said that the crash was just a freak accident. Something must have gone wrong on the plane—either with the equipment itself, or because the pilot had an unexpected medical emergency. Whatever it was, he now feels very lucky to be alive. Why did the accident not happen while Walker was still on the plane? He can’t guess. The situation, he said, feels surreal to him.
He does not know why fate spared him, he told the local news, but for whatever reason, God left him on Earth a little longer. He feels blessed to still be among the living.
The Sheriff’s office for Niagara County reports that it began receiving citizen calls around 11:40 AM from drivers who saw a brush fire on the verge near the highway. Deputies didn’t discover the crash until they arrived at the scene of the fire and found the plane’s wreckage on a down-slope out of view of traffic.
