NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. — Investigators in the Town of Porter are trying to determine how a tourist activity turned deadly.
Niagara County officials confirmed to 2 On Your Side that a pilot died in a plane crash Saturday morning.
The crash happened on the Niagara Scenic Parkway, northeast of Fort Niagara State Park, the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Saturday afternoon.
The sheriff's office said its communications center began receiving 911 calls around 11:40 a.m. about a plane crash. There were also reports of a brush fire around the crash site.
The initial investigation revealed that an airplane from Skydive the Falls had released all divers and was heading back to land when it crashed. The pilot was the only person onboard at the time of the crash and was killed.
“As part of our investigation, we'll be interviewing the divers that were on the plane,” Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti said. “With the assistance of our law enforcement partners here, we'll be talking to numerous witnesses just to see what they saw before the plane went down.”
Authorities confirmed the pilot was 26-year-old Melanie Georger of the Town of Tonawanda. Her family said she was a lover of aviation and graduated from Kenmore East High School and the University at Buffalo, where she earned a degree in aerospace engineering.
“This is really like any other emergency type incident,” Filicetti said. “You go through phases, you get here, and you want to try to preserve life. Unfortunately, in this case, we couldn't do that.”
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were notified of the crash, and the scene remains secured while the investigation continues.
New York State Police, Town of Lewiston Police, and New York State Park Police officers all responded to the scene, as did the Youngstown Volunteer Fire Company, which extinguished the fires.