Posted on 07/31/2022 12:50:46 PM PDT by Cecily
The pilot of a small twin-engine plane is heard in a 40-minute recording asking air traffic control for help to making an emergency landing before his 23-year-old co-pilot jumped or fell from it at 3,500-feet.
Charles Hew Crooks did not have a parachute on before he plunged to his death in North Carolina on Friday, officials said.
In the 40-minute exchange between the unidentified pilot and air traffic control, there is no mention or hint of Crooks falling from the plane.
The pilot can be heard saying: 'Emergency, we've lost our right wheel. We would like to proceed to Raleigh and make a landing at Raleigh.'
He adds: 'We have two persons on board. We have enough fuel on board that will last us for the next four hours.'
Air Traffic control responds: 'Raleigh-Durham Airport or Raleigh-General?' 'Rogers resume all navigation to Raleigh-Durham Airport.'
'More clarification, did you try landing on Raeford West?' he asks. 'Did it [the wheel] fall off while still in the air?'
'We were attempting to land,' the pilot said. 'We made contact with the ground and had a hard landing and decided to go around and at that point we lost the wheel.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
The other guy should have jumped at 10 feet not 3500 feet.
Was he preparing to land with a satchel of documents proving felonies committed by Felonious Milhaus von Pantsuit?
It is a plane with a rear ramp often used for skydivers. When the pilot discovers his landing gear has a problem, he could have sent the co pilot back to check it’s status which you can do from the open ramp. There were thunderstorms in the area so there was turbulence. My guess is that the co pilot fell from the ramp.
Yeah, he did it wrong.
missing info....... where was the first landing attempt. Was it legal?
I suspect the “co pilot’was drugged and kicked out
They had been doing touch and gos at another airport.
“Yeah, he did it wrong.”
At 10 feet, in a small plane, you figure about what, 65 mph, maybe less? Drop and roll and you might live. From 3500 feet, without a parachute, unless you are over water and land right, no way.
Seems like we’re getting only part of this story...
Theory: ‘They’ had a hard touchdown and aborted a landing. You can’t see the wheels from the cockpit, so yes, the fallen person went and opened a service hatch, reported the wheel was missing and then fell out of the plane accidentally, perhaps due to turbulence or footing error. The pilot got the report of the missing wheel and shortly thereafter landed, probably not knowing the fate of the other pilot.
3500 feet over water? It would smash you like a bug. You might as well concrete. The only proven hope for a successful landing from an outfit like that through evergreen trees into a very deep snowpack or thick vegetation.
I heard somewhere the company that owned the plane was a special forces contractor, but that seems to be missing from subsequent reports.
I am suspicious.
No frantic “Omg he just jumped/fell!”
Just “oh we’re down one passenger now”
who benefits from all this?
Vesna Vulović was a Serbian flight attendant who holds the Guinness world record for surviving the highest fall without a parachute: 33,330 ft. She was the sole survivor after a briefcase bomb exploded in the baggage compartment of JAT Flight 367 on 26 January 1972, causing it to crash near Srbská Kamenice, Czechoslovakia.
(from Wiki)
Occam’s razor.
You'd think digital cameras would be standard equipment on all sorts of airplanes these days. They're not expensive.
I guess he was fired and did not have a golden parachute...
Alan Magee fell about 22,000 feet and went through the glass roof of the St. Nazaire train station in WWII. He was pretty badly injured, but lived to be almost 85.
The pilot “could have sent the co pilot back to check it’s status ...”
Well then the pilot will certainly be able to verify that.
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