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Town dedicates memorial at Sanford Town Library on September 23
COLONIE — Residents of Colonie still remember how a morning disaster was narrowly averted near the town library when a small plane crashed just feet from a neighborhood and a main roadway during the morning rush.
“Precisely 14 weeks ago today, at approximately 8:17 a.m., tragedy struck our town when Natalie Rose Gillis lost her life as her twin-engine Piper PA-31 Navajo crashed moments after takeoff, just 350 feet from this site,” Colonie Town Supervisor Peter Crummey recalled as he led a dedication of a memorial near the crash site on Monday, Sept. 23.
Aside from the death of Gillis, who died on impact, only one other person was slightly injured when she was hit by debris from the crash while walking her dog.
The explosion from the crash and the subsequent fire from burning fuel could have been devastating given the proximity to nearby homes and the library, Crummey said.
“The good Lord was working with Natalie, and they put that plane down in one of the few places in that area where there weren’t many other people,” he said. “They did it together.”
Those sentiments resonated with many in the town, who chose a spot close to the impact site for a memorial.
Gathered in the rear parking lot of the Sanford Library near the exit to Fred Field Drive, Crummey, and other town board members unveiled a plaque commemorating her final moments, which occurred just a few hundred feet away.
The plaque reads: “Natalie Rose Gillis. Professional Wilderness Guide, Acclaimed Photographer, Pilot. April 29, 1990 – June 17, 2024.
350’ southeast of this marker, Natalie Gillis tragically lost her life when her twin-engine Piper PA-31 aircraft crashed moments after takeoff from Albany International Airport. This memorial is dedicated to her love for life, the spirit of adventure, and the miracle of sparing our Colonie community from further loss on that fateful day.”
It was presented by the Citizens of the Town of Colonie, the plaque states.
The rock to which the plaque is attached came from near the water plant in Latham.
“It’s a piece of stone from Colonie, and we wanted her memory to always be attached to our town. Now it is,” Crummey said.
Town Board member Melissa Jeffers wrote and recited a poem for Gillis.
Poem for Natalie Gillis
Natalie. I don’t know you, but you like so many, you inspire me.
Thirty-four years young and full of invincible life.
You made the most of every single day until your very last flight.
Photographer, adventurer, poet and so much more,
This world was fortunate to have someone who loved it as much as you did to your core.
Traveling to every corner of the earth and viewing it from your own unique lens,
Sharing your incredible gift with this universe, a legacy that will help heal your family and friends.
While we may never know whether your last seconds were intentional or pure chance,
I am eternally grateful that you somehow spared my community a greater tragedy; happenstance.
Thank you for being a bright light in a dark and lonely place,
There is now an entire town in upstate New York who has learned your story and is forever changed by your angelic face.
Melissa Jeffers – June 19, 2024
The Crash
The trouble began as Gillis, of Calgary, pulled off the taxiway and onto the north-south runway at Albany International Airport, known as 01/19, and took off.
The flight was planned to return the 1979 Piper PA-31-310 Navajo to its home base in Montreal after a trip to map forests around Fayetteville, North Carolina. The flight was expected to take about an hour and a half.
According to the plane’s flight records on flightradar24.com, the aircraft stopped in Albany on April 29 on the way to Fayetteville and departed the following morning to continue the trip. It flew 11 flights over 45 days, and Gillis took the first leg home on June 16 for an overnight rest and fuel stop.
“The airplane flew on the runway heading for about 1.5 miles before turning left and left again.
Of note, the airplane seemed to have difficulty gaining altitude. It then went nearly straight up 800 feet, completed a loop, turned left, did at least one roll, and then impacted the ground,” National Transportation Safety Board Air Safety Inspector Lynn Spencer said at a press conference the next day. “This flight path is typical of an extreme loss of control situation.”
The preliminary report from the NTSB, published on July 2, said that engine and major mechanical failure had been ruled out, but the final report would take another 8 to 12 months to complete.
An Artist, Photographer, and Guide
Natalie Gillis used her 34 years to achieve much beyond flying airplanes. In a May 2023 interview with the Profoundly Pointless podcast, she said flying was a way to stay connected to the places she loved.
She spent many seasons in the Arctic and Antarctic regions as a wilderness guide and photographer. Her Instagram and Facebook pages were filled with stunning images of places and animals most people never see. She also recently published a book of poetry about her travels after earning a master’s degree during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I have spent 12 seasons in the Arctic and five seasons in Antarctica,” she said in the interview. “It’s really the farthest place on Planet Earth to get away from a busy shopping mall or traffic.”
She explained how she photographed polar bears and mentioned that narwhal whales were the most elusive.
Gillis, however, was a serious pilot. She commanded planes in some of the world’s harshest environments as a pilot in polar regions and announced in May that she had earned Canada’s highest pilot certification, the Airline Transport Pilot License.
According to Transport Canada, an Airline Transport Pilot must have at least 1,500 hours of flight time and 250 hours as pilot-in-command.
“[Gillis] was an airline transport pilot, which is the highest level of pilot training and certification a pilot can attain. She was very well qualified,” Air Safety Inspector Spencer said.
