Kansas woman dies at age 37 after backing into active plane propeller while taking photos

A Kansas woman died after she backed into a whirling propeller while taking photos, authorities said Monday.

Wichita photographer and skydiver Amanda Gallagher, 37, was pronounced dead at Wesley Medical Center on Saturday “due to injuries sustained” after she “made contact with a grounded and stationary, but still running plane, and received critical injuries,” the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have been notified, the sheriff’s office said. The agencies said they’ll investigate.

An online fundraising drive for funeral expenses had pulled in more than $12,000 by Monday afternoon for the woman who was “kind, adventurous, creative and beautiful inside and out,” organizer Abbey Charboneau wrote. “She was a loving daughter, sister, aunt and friend and will be greatly missed.”

She died “doing what she loved, skydiving and taking pictures!” Charboneau added.

Gallagher owned AG Photography, documenting her travels and taking photos for Air Capital Drop Zone at Cook Airfield, KAKE-TV reported.

“Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the young lady who died yesterday after a tragic accident with an airplane propeller on Cook Airfield,” the airfield said in a statement Sunday. “Please keep her family, her friends and her Air Capital Drop Zone family in your prayers and thoughts.”

The photographer and skydiver had been an observer on one of the private skydiving company’s flights, Air Capital Drop Zone said in a statement, according to NBC News.

“After the airplane landed, for unknown reasons, as the next group of jumpers were boarding, she moved in front of the wing, a violation of basic safety procedures,” the company said. “With her camera up to shoot photos as she did so, she stepped back slightly moving toward and into the spinning propeller.”

Drop Zone owner Martin Myrtle said the Drop Zone community was deeply affected by Gallagher’s death, adding, “Her presence at the DZ was welcomed, she was loved.”