The pilot who died in crash after releasing skydivers near Niagara Falls has been identified

NEW YORK (AP) — Officials on Sunday released the name of a pilot who died in a skydiving flight after her passengers jumped from the aircraft near the Niagara Falls.

Melanie Georger, 26, was the only person on board when the single-engine Cessna crashed Saturday, the Niagara Country 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 realizing her dream to fly for the airlines. She was doing what she loved, flying for a local skydiving company, when her plane crashed.”

The skydiving company, identified by Sheriff’s Office as Skydive the Falls, did not immediately respond to email and social media messages requesting comment Sunday morning. A person answering a phone number listed on the company’s website hung up. The company advertises a scenic flyover of Niagara Falls before each skydive.

One of the skydivers who jumped before the crash told Buffalo TV station WIBV that he felt blessed to be alive.

“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,” first-time jumper Jeffrey Walker told the station.

Despite the crash, Walker said he wouldn’t rule out skydiving in the future. “This is a fluke accident. Something went wrong.”

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 kilometers) from Niagara Falls. The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the investigation into the crash.