Bride Found Alive Under Rubble After Wedding Helicopter Crash Kills Her Groom

A dream wedding in Georgia turned into a nightmare just minutes after the bride and groom lifted off in a helicopter meant to whisk them away from the celebration.

The groom, 25-year-old Dave Fiji, was killed Friday evening when the helicopter carrying him and his new bride crashed in rural Dawson County, Georgia. The pilot also died in the crash.

The bride, identified as Jessni, survived with bruises and cuts and is expected to be released from the hospital in the coming days, according to local reports.

The newlyweds had just gotten married and boarded the helicopter after the ceremony. They were heading to Peachtree-DeKalb Airport when the aircraft went down shortly after takeoff in a wooded area.

What was supposed to be the beginning of their married life became an unimaginable tragedy.

Dave’s father, George Fiji, told WSB-TV his son was deeply loved by his family.

“He was a precious child, he was a gift from God for us,” George said.

According to George, Dave was also a pilot and had concerns about the foggy, rainy conditions that evening.

“He said I wouldn’t fly, we would not fly in this visibility,” George recalled his son saying.

Moments later, the helicopter crashed.

The bride was trapped in the wreckage for hours, George said. When she finally woke up, she was buried beneath debris.

“She said when she woke up, she was under the rubble,” he told WSB-TV.

Then came the heartbreaking realization.

“She woke up and saw him lying on her chest,” George said. “She herself is a nurse. When she touched him, she called out to him. He was already cold.”

The helicopter was owned by Prestige Helicopters, an Atlanta-based company. Andy Whitaker, the company’s director of operations, told WTOC that the crash was unprecedented and said the company had maintained a spotless flying record for decades.

Whitaker said the pilot, whose name has not yet been publicly released, had flown that route several times before.

The Dawson County Sheriff’s Department said deputies were dispatched Friday to a “possible downed helicopter.” The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.

For the Fiji family, the grief is almost impossible to comprehend.

Dave’s mother, Pheba Fiji, said she noticed something extraordinary about her son during the wedding ceremony, just before the tragedy.

She told WSB-TV she saw a “special glow and glory” in his face.

“Both of them told us they could sense the presence of God at the altar, a tangible presence of God,” she said.

Now, a family is mourning a groom who never got to begin married life with his bride, while a young woman recovers from a crash that turned her wedding night into a scene of heartbreak.