UPS pilot who ‘lit up the room’ dies at 30 after plane crashes into potato processing plant

Chelsea Brittney Infanger/Instagram Chelsea Brittney Infanger

An experienced pilot died at age 30 last week after crashing into a potato processing plant in Idaho.

Around 9 a.m. Wednesday morning, Heyburn police and emergency responders went to the Gem State processing plant, where they discovered the pilot had crashed into a single-engine plane, according to a communicated.

Although authorities have not named 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 was performed and the case was turned over to the FAA and NTSB, according to Minidoka County Coroner Lucky Bourn.

No one at the processing plant was injured in the accident, police said in the release.

The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed immediate details of the accident in a statement obtained by PEOPLE. The crash investigation is being conducted by the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation.

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Infanger, who was piloting a Cessna 208B aircraft registered to Gem Air, was transporting packages from Burley Municipal Airport to Salt Lake City International Airport, the FAA said. No data has been released by the NTSB at this time.

“Our deepest sympathies go out to the family of the pilot involved in the crash in Burley, Idaho,” UPS spokesperson Jim Mayer told PEOPLE. “Although the accident did not involve a plane or UPS employees, the flight from Salt Lake City, UT, to Burley, was intended to transport UPS packages.”

Infanger’s father, Jim Bob Infanger, who is also a pilot, told East Idaho News that his daughter had 11 years of flying experience and was familiar with the airport where the crash occurred.

“There’s a 60-foot smokestack sticking out of the top of the food processing plant — with no lights, dead center — right across the runway,” he told the outlet. “So every time you go in, you have to fly over the top and go down.”

Chelsea Brittney Infanger/Instagram Chelsea Brittney Infange

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Infanger’s family told East Idaho News that the pilot, known to those close to him as Brittney, graduated from Utah State University with a degree in business finance. After college, she became a flight instructor in Mesa, Arizona, and moved to Salmon, Idaho, when its flight school closed due to the pandemic.

From there, she began giving flight instructions with her own plane. Speaking to the outlet, her mother remembered her as someone who “lit up the room with her smile wherever she went.”

She leaves behind her two parents, five brothers and sisters, as well as nieces and nephews, according to the media. His funeral is scheduled for Saturday, April 23 in Salmon.

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“The world is a darker place without her light, but I believe heaven is a little more beautiful with her there. She has seen more and experienced more in her 30 years than most do in 100. My angel sister gained her permanent wings,” her sister Emily Goodrich told East Idaho News.