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

NEW YORK –

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. …