Family, friends mourn loss of woman fatally injured at Derby airfield

WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) - As they mourn, family and friends fondly a 37-year-old Wichita woman who died from her injuries at a Wichita hospital after backing into a moving airplane propeller Saturday at an airfield in Derby.

Those close with Amanda Gallagher say she was a fearless and creative person. Gallagher was at Cook Airfield on Saturday, shooting photos of skydivers when she was fatally injured. Her business partner, Tori Tong, said from the moment she met Gallagher, she knew she was special.

“She stood out to me. She was just this very caring individual who just was always trying to make people smile and laugh, and I just naturally gravitated toward her energy,” Tong said.

Gallagher’s friends say she was someone who brought the people around her together.

“She really was a lighthouse, a beacon in my life. She’d leave these notes in the kitchen for everybody, ‘, if you can dream it, you can achieve it,’ ‘Baby steps are better than no steps at all,’ ‘Trust the process,’ ‘You make the world a better place.’ She would fill whole note pads and people would interact back with her just caring for people she didn’t even know, people that she wouldn’t even see their reactions,” Tong said.

Gallagher wanted to make the most of the little things, Tong said.

“She had the vision, she noticed things that other people wouldn’t typically see and she could capture the essence of that moment,” Tong said. “I have so many pictures of her just stopping to take pictures of flowers and bees and leaves on the ground. She was so into everything.”

Gallagher’s family has set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral expenses.