A 23-year-old flight instructor from Virginia died on Thursday afternoon when a student crashed a small plane after causing it to stall during take-off.
Instructor Viktoria Theresie Izabelle Ljungman died at the scene, while 18-year-old student-pilot Oluwagbohunmi Ayomide Oyebode and another 18-year-old passenger, who has not been named, were seriously injured, Virginia State Police told PEOPLE.
In a statement, police said Oyebode “attempted to pull the aircraft up at too steep of an angle,” causing the engine to stall in mid-air after taking off from Newport News-Williamsburg Airport. The plane, a single-engine Cessna 172, had reached an altitude of about 100 feet before it crashed, the Associated Press reported.
Oyebode and the second student both attend Hampton University, a private university in Virginia, per the Daily Press. Both men had life-threatening injuries and were taken to Riverside Regional Medical Center after the accident. Oyebode was later transferred to VCU Medical Center.
The outlet said Ljungman graduated from Hampton and was a former member of the university’s tennis team. She was originally from Sweden, CBS affiliate WTKR reported, and worked for Rick Aviation, which had partnered with Hampton University’s aviation program.