A popular aviation YouTuber and her father were killed when their plane crashed in Tennessee Thursday — just one month after she posted a video of her facing an “aircraft malfunction” at 4,000 feet.
Jenny Blalock, 45, and her father James, 78, went down around 11 a.m. and crashed on a remote road in Pulaski, a city on the central-southern border of Alabama, according to federal and county officials.
Their bodies were discovered outside the plane, which landed in a “remote” area that was difficult for crews to reach.
“It was just devastating. It was significant damage again. Unfortunately, there were just no survivors,” Bill Myers, director of the Giles County Office of Emergency Management, told 10 News.
The father-and-daughter pair had traveled 180 miles from Knoxville when the aircraft plummeted, FlightAware data shows. They were roughly 10 miles short of landing at a city-owned airport.
The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but it comes just a month after Blalock — known in the community as TNFlyGirl — posted a video of herself executing an emergency landing during an “aircraft malfunction” from 4,000 feet in the air.
“Are we going to make it?” she eerily asks her flight instructor after he points out the plane’s battery had died mid-flight.
Later, she discovered that the plane also had screws loose on its regulator.
Despite the harrowing ordeal, Blalock remained calm and expertly landed the aircraft without issue.
“God bless and fly safe,” the well-known YouTuber told her 16,000 subscribers.
According to her account, she was a “private pilot, flying for fun in a Beechcraft Debonair.”
Blalock, who also is a luxury home builder and designer, frequently filmed her flying excursions with her father since launching her popular channel in 2021.
Their fatal flight appeared to be one of the first the pair had taken together “in a while,” according to a video Blalock posted in November.
“Jenny and her dad were not just daughter/father, they were best friends and did EVERYTHING together!” her partner, Brett Thees, said on Facebook.
The Blalock family issued a statement saying they take comfort in knowing the father-daughter pair “were together when they met our Lord and Savior!”
