A UNIVERSITY graduate who wanted to beat her fear of heights by skydiving has been killed in a plane crash in the US.

Victoria Delacroix died on Saturday along with five others when the twin-engined aircraft they were flying in crashed in the US state of Missouri.

The 22-year-old, who had been in America since June working at a summer camp for the disabled, was trying skydiving to conquer her fear of heights.

But shortly after taking off, one of the aircraft's engines exploded causing it to smash into an electricity pylon and fall to the ground.

Victoria, who suffered severe injuries including a crushed pelvis and damage to her internal organs, was airlifted from the scene of the crash to hospital in nearby St Louis where medics battled to save her life.

Her mother Susan Delacroix, 56, told News Shopper how just after midnight she was in bed wondering why Victoria had not called as she normally did on Saturdays when the phone rang.

She said: "When I picked it up it was the hospital saying Victoria had been badly injured in a plane crash and arrangements were being made to fly two family members out to her.

"I started packing a bag and called my other daughter, who was going to come with me.

"I was frantically packing when the phone rang again about an hour later. It was the hospital to say they hadn't managed to save her."

The family knew Victoria had been going to skydive earlier in the day because she had sent a text message just before take-off.

But Mrs Delacroix, of Blandford Road, Beckenham, says nothing could have prepared them for the devastating news.

She said: "I was completely numb. I couldn't cry, I just started shaking and couldn't stop."

Family members spoke to hospital staff and discovered four other skydivers and an instructor had also died.

Two other people had been injured. They included a friend of Victoria's due to do a tandem jump with her. She had suffered several broken bones.

US air crash investigators have started a probe into the accident.

Victoria, who completed a geography degree at Derby University earlier this year, was due to return home in September and pursue a career in the Army.

Following the news of her death, a friend of the family had suggested they are jinxed.

Mrs Delacroix's husband Vivian, 70, suffers heart problems and kidney failure and is on dialysis.

Their three-month-old granddaughter Isla was born with congenital adrenal hyperplasia a rare genetic disease which affects hormones.

The British Consulate in St Louis is liaising with Missourian authorities to get Victoria's body repatriated.

Mrs Delacroix, who works as a customer services assistant in Sainsbury's Beckenham store, says she is desperate to get Victoria's body home so they can "say goodbye".

Paying tribute to the former Cator Park School for Girls pupil, she said: "She was our beautiful little princess.

"Everyone we have told has been devastated and we haven't found anybody who didn't like her.

"She was a beautiful young woman and now she's gone and we have to say goodbye."