Chelsea Brittney Infanger.Photo: Chelsea Brittney Infanger/Instagram
An experienced pilot died at 30 last week after crashing into a potato processing plant in Idaho.
On Wednesday morning around 9 a.m., Heyburn Police Department and emergency responders dispatched to Gem State Processing Plant, where they found that the pilot had crashed a single-engine plane, according toa statement.
Though authorities did not name the pilot, who was the sole occupant of the plane and did not survive, the Minidoka County Coroner identified the victim to PEOPLE as Chelsea Brittney Infanger. An autopsy has performed, and the case has been handed off to the FAA and NTSB, according to Minidoka County Coroner Lucky Bourn.
No one at the processing plant was injured in the crash, police said in the statement.
“Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to the family of the pilot involved in the accident in Burley, Idaho,” UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer told PEOPLE. “While the accident did not involve a UPS aircraft or employees, the flight from Salt Lake City, UT to Burley was contracted to carry UPS packages.”
Infanger’s father, Jim Bob Infanger, who is also a pilot, toldEast Idaho Newsthat his daughter had 11 years of flying experience and was familiar with the airport where the crash occurred.
“There’s a 60-foot chimney sticking out of the top of the food processing plant — no lights on it, dead center — straight across the runway,” he told the outlet. “So whenever you come in, you have to fly over the top of this and drop down.”
Chelsea Brittney Infange.Chelsea Brittney Infanger/Instagram
Infanger’s family told East Idaho News that the pilot, who was known to loved ones as Brittney, was a graduate of Utah State University with a degree in business finance. After college, she became a flight instructor in Mesa, Arizona, and moved home to Salmon, Idaho, when her flight school shut down due to the pandemic.
From there, she started giving flight instructions with her own plane. Speaking with the outlet, her mother remembered her as someone who “brightened the room with her smile everywhere she went.”
She leaves behind her two parents, five siblings and nieces and nephews, per the outlet. Her funeral is planned for Saturday, April 23 in Salmon.
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source: people.com
