The tragic circumstances of a pilot’s last moments have been revealed, along with the cause of death of the man who mysteriously fell from a plane mid-flight without a parachute.
The 23-year-old co-pilot of a tiny plane that had to make an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina in July jumped out of the aircraft. His name was Charles Crooks.
Crooks’ death was an accident, according to the autopsy report, which NBC News was able to get from the North Carolina chief medical examiner’s office.
On July 29, Crooks served as the co-pilot of a twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar.
According to the autopsy report, Crooks “had no significant natural disease” despite sustaining multiple blunt force injuries during an unintentional fall.
A toxicology report also revealed that “neither alcohol nor common drugs of abuse” were found in his system.
The autopsy revealed that on the day of the incident, Crooks was employed by a private organisation that dropped skydivers from a ramp in a little field.
According to the investigation, the aircraft’s landing gear was damaged during the third landing approach while only Crooks and the pilot were inside.
The co-pilots told air traffic control about the problem with the landing gear as well.
“They were flying at around 3500 feet with the back ramp open for ventilation,” the postmortem report states.
“The aircraft encountered moderate turbulence. At some point, the decedent (copilot) opened a cockpit window for ventilation and possibly to vomit.
“Sometime after, he told the pilot that he felt he was going to be sick and apologized.
“He then departed the cockpit towards the open rear ramp; at some point, the pilot realized that he had apparently fallen from the aircraft.”
National Transportation Safety Board’s preliminary report of the incident said Crooks seemed to be “visibly upset” when he said he wasn’t feeling well and needed air.
According to NBC News, the report also claimed that the unnamed pilot missed seeing thieves grasp for a bar above the ramp.
Crooks’ body was discovered after the emergency landing after a neighbour flagged down police and reported hearing “something” in their Fuquay-Varina property.
According to flight tracking software, both pilots called air traffic control to let them know the plane’s main right wheel had fallen.
In an attempt to land at Raeford Airport, one of the co-pilots claimed that they “made a hard landing, decided to go around, and at that point, we lost the wheel.”
One of the pilots made a call to Fayetteville Air Traffic Control during the flight to request assistance with rerouting to RDU.
We’ve lost our right wheel; we’d want to travel to Raleigh and make a landing, one of them adds.
Before someone asked, “Quick question, how do you expect to arrive at Raleigh-Durham,” the two co-pilots could be heard saying that there was enough fuel to stay in the air for an additional four hours before having to land.
“Get as low as we can and I think we’re going to put it on the belly,” one of the men replied.
The co-pilot leaped from the plane without using a parachute, one of the pilots later reported to authorities over radio communication.
The aeroplane touched down on the runway, but due to the missing wheel, it spun out and skidded off the edge of the runway onto the grass.