YOUNGSTOWN, N.Y. (WKBW) — The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the deadly plane crash in Youngstown on July 20.
The pilot, 26-year-old Melanie Georger, was killed in the crash. Georger's dad told 7 News that she was born and raised in the Town of Tonawanda. She went to Kenmore East and later graduated with a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from the University at Buffalo.
After the crash, we spoke with Timothy Campbell who remembered Georger. Campbell is a flight instructor in Massachusetts and was Georger’s personal instructor in 2021 for her private pilot’s license. You can watch the report below.
The plane, a Cessna 208 owned by Skydive the Falls, was destroyed in the crash.
The NTSB said the crash occurred on the second day of Skydive the Falls Fest Boogie. Georger had completed five flights on the morning of the accident and the crash occurred during the sixth flight after the skydivers departed without incident.
According to the NTSB, communications obtained from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) revealed that the controller lost communication with Georger just before the crash, and minutes later another company airplane that was attempting to locate Georger's plane noted smoke on the ground about two to three miles west of the jump zone.
Data indicates that the plane departed from the runway at Windsor Airport in Youngstown, turned south and climbed to an altitude of 12,000 feet and then made a jump pass from east to west over the airport. The NTSB said the track data ended near the west side of the airport at an altitude of 10,332 feet.
The NTSB said video captured during the jump after the skydivers departed the plane shows the plane pitched over in a dive and rolled right along its vertical axis before going out of view.
According to the report, a witness in the area observed the plane descending rapidly “straight down" and another witness observed the airplane with “one wing pointed towards the ground” and “one wing pointed towards the sky.”
The NTSB said the plane crashed into a grassy slope near the Niagara Scenic Parkway in a left-wing, nose-low and near-inverted position. It then caught fire after the crash.
7 News spoke with a first-time skydiver, Jeff Walker, who flew with Georger before the crash.
"She was super nice," said Walker. "She said welcome and asked me if this was my first jump and she said enjoy it and have fun." You can watch the report below.
You can read the full report below.
