A Georgia college student died after being hit twice on the head by a plane propeller at a Georgia airport on Sunday.
Authorities identified the victim as Sani Aliyu, 21, a Georgia Southern University sophomore. The accident happened at the Statesboro-Bulloch County airport, in Bulloch County, Georgia, the New York Post reported.
Aliyu had rented the plane for a date, and flew around 55 miles to Savannah and back. It landed safely, but after getting out of the plane, Aliyu walked to the front of the plane and got struck twice on the head by the propeller, dying immediately, authorities said.
The accident happened at around 10:35 p.m. An ambulance responded to the scene at around 10:45 p.m., the Statesboro Herald reported.
Todd Hutchens of the Bulloch County Sheriff’s Office said that the other people on the plane were a pilot, a co-pilot, and a friend of Aliyu.
“Nobody is really at fault of anything,” Hutchens said. “It was an accident.”
Aliyu was studying management.
The plane was a four-seater Cessna 172S, owned by a Florida company.
“We were deeply saddened to hear about the traffic incident that involved one of our students Sunday night,” Aileen Dowell, Georgia Southern’s dean of students, said in a statement provided to the New York Post.
“I have already been in touch with his family and professors, and we have mobilized all available resources to provide counseling and any other assistance the university can give.”
