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Family says Greenwood pilot died doing what she loved

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Family and friends say Cinnamon Franklin died doing what she loved.

The 27-year-old Greenwood pilot was killed Tuesday afternoon in a plane crash in Texas.

The crash also killed the other person on board the plane, 55-year-old Thomas Sands, of Sugar Land, Texas, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.

It’s not clear who was flying the plane.

Franklin’s best friend and cousin, Darian Hornaday, says Franklin didn’t always know she wanted to be a pilot.

“Once she went to Germany…like, a lightbulb just went off in her head, and she was like, ‘I have to see everything I can,’” Hornaday said.

Hornaday says that trip changed Franklin’s entire life. She says Franklin knew that if she wanted to travel and get paid for it, the only direction she could go was up.

“She wanted to fly the big planes, make the big bucks, and, you know, be able to live that kind of life she wanted,” Hornaday said.

Franklin spent most of her life in Martinsville and later began working at the Greenwood airport. She became a licensed commercial pilot in 2021 and moved to Ohio to start her career.

“I know that she really loved her job and she was really loving her life and she overcame every adversity that was ever thrown her way,” Hornaday said.

Hornaday says Franklin’s job took her all over the country, including to Texas, where she died.

Franklin and Sands were in a Cessna when it went down in a field near the Marlin Airport in Marlin, Texas, about 30 miles southeast of Waco, says the Texas Department of Public Safety.

“I called her phone and I just…it rang and I let it ring and ring and ring and she didn’t pick up and I was just hoping that she would, you know, maybe they were wrong, maybe it wasn’t her. Maybe it wasn’t her plane,” Hornaday said, in tears.

Hornaday shared stories of Franklin taking her up in her plane. She says those are the memories Franklin would want her to think of whenever she looks up at the sky.

“‘It’s not fair, but, you know, all I can hope for is that she’s flying high in the bluest skies that she’s ever seen,” Hornaday said.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. The cause of the crash has not been determined.