NIAGARA COUNTY, N.Y. (WIVB) — A man from Elma, New York, said he’s “blessed to still be around,” after he jumped from a plane only 30 minutes before it crashed Saturday morning, killing the pilot.
Jeffrey Walker told Nexstar’s WIVB he woke up Saturday morning feeling calm. He arrived at Skydive the Falls, a skydiving center in Youngstown, about 13 miles north of Niagara Falls, around 9:20 a.m.
Skydive the Falls, which opened in June 2019, offers a unique experience with a scenic flight over Niagara Falls before every jump.
“Everything was great,” Walker recounted. “It was great weather, low winds, very calm winds. Everybody was excited. Everybody was in a good mood.”
Although Saturday was his first skydiving experience, he said he never got nervous, which was strange for him because he’s usually a very nervous person.
“I never even got nervous at the door ready to jump,” Walker said. “I didn’t know what to expect.”
Just 30 minutes later, the unexpected happened: the skydiving flight right after Walker’s crashed, killing the pilot, 26-year-old Melanie Georger of Tonawanda, New York.
“At approximately 11:40 a.m., we started receiving multiple 911 calls of a plane crash just east of Fort Niagara on the Niagara Scenic Parkway,” said Niagara County Sheriff Michael Filicetti. “Upon response, we located one plane [that] crashed. Unfortunately, one fatal. One pilot was on board, and it is a confirmed fatal.”
Prior to the crash, all the skydivers had jumped from the plane.
The Niagara County Sheriff’s Office also noted how close the plane went down in proximity to some major parkways. Filicetti said if the plane crashed just a couple hundred feet away from where it did, it could’ve been a lot worse.
“Where it landed was just off the parkway. We look to the west near Fort Niagara, it’s full of soccer players today,” Filicetti said. “We’re lucky where it landed, but it is an unfortunate incident.”
The crash ignited a small brush fire, which was extinguished by the Youngstown Volunteer Fire Company.
When asked if this tragedy would keep Walker from skydiving again, he said no.
“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.”
After hearing the news, Walker said he was thankful to be alive and that it was a surreal feeling, knowing that it could’ve easily been him.
“For some reason, God left me on Earth, and I’m just blessed to still be around,” Walker said. “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.”
According to the Niagara County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board will be coming to the Town of Porter to investigate the crash.
The scene is being secured until a complete investigation is performed.