Man Dies After Jumping From Plane Before Landing Near Raleigh; pilot hospitalized, officials say
MORRISVILLE, NC – A twin-engine cargo plane made an emergency landing Friday at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after reports of problems with its landing gear and a search for the co-pilot who ejected earlier that the landing ended with the recovery of a body. according to Wake County officials.
ABC 11, Channel 9’s sister station in Raleigh, reported that a man jumped from the plane before it made an emergency landing near Raeford after a wheel came off the landing gear.
Now there are questions about exactly where he left the plane. The conversation between the plane and air traffic control can be heard on a 40-minute recording, ABC 11 reported Saturday night.
“Emergency, we’ve lost the right wheel, we’d like to go to Raleigh and land in Raleigh,” said a pilot. “We were trying to land, we made contact with the ground, we had a hard landing and decided to go around, and at that point we lost the wheel.”
The CASA C-212 Aviocar, manufactured in Spain in 1983, landed on runway 5R-23L at RDU at about 14:40 and veered onto the grass. The pilot on board was taken to Duke Hospital with minor injuries, according to RDU first responders.
“How do you plan to land at Raleigh-Durham?” air traffic control asked. “Go as slow as we can… I guess we’ll put it in the belly,” the caller said.
After the emergency landing, the pilot was taken to Duke Hospital with minor injuries and has since been released.
The body of co-pilot Charles Hew Crooks, 23, was found 20 miles from the airport in a Fuquay-Varina neighborhood.
Several residents told ABC 11 they heard the crash, including a person who realized it was in their backyard.
“I honestly thought it was someone who was closing the lid on their trash can or something because it was pretty loud,” the eyewitness said.
The pilot told authorities that the co-pilot on board jumped out before the landing attempt, ABC 11 reports. The jumper was initially thought to have ejected from the plane into a mass of ‘water near West Lake Middle School in Apex.
Another resident who lives two doors down from where Crooks was found near called it a “surreal” experience.
“I guess I don’t know if we’ll ever really know, but it’s crazy,” Matt Stone told ABC 11. “If I had jumped a second earlier, I could have been right here at my son’s game. Just a million things, and the sadness of that, to be a 23-year-old guy who probably woke up that day, had breakfast, ready to fly a plane.”
Multiple agencies assisted in the massive search before it ended Friday evening. The National Transportation Safety Board is handling the investigation, but questions remain about how Crooks got out during the flight.
Wake County authorities said Friday there was no indication he had a parachute with him.
“Maybe he fell, or jumped, I don’t know,” said an eyewitness. “But I felt remorse for his family.”
The aircraft landed after the right landing gear failed to open, but the left landing gear appeared to be functioning properly. The plane is owned by Spore LTD LLC in Colorado Springs and took off from Raeford.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the incident. Runway 5R-23L at RDU was reopened on Saturday and the airport returned to normal operations.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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