A 911 call from air traffic controllers reveals that a The co-pilot may have jumped From a damaged plane before the second pilot made an emergency landing in North Carolina, according to a recording of the call released Tuesday.
It is not clear how or why 23-year-old Charles Hugh Crooks got out of the small cargo plane about 30 miles south of Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Friday afternoon. He did not have a parachute, and his body was found in a backyard in the city of Fuqua-Varina.
Two unnamed Federal Aviation Administration employees can be heard telling the 911 dispatcher that the plane was headed for the airport. The ship’s pilot apparently told him that his co-pilot had “jumped off the plane,” CBS affiliate WNCN-TV informed of
According to WNCN, a controller told the 911 dispatcher, “We have a pilot who was inbound in the field.” “His co-pilot jumped off the plane. He made an impact on the ground and here are the coordinates.”
The call lasted about 13 minutes, with controllers saying several times that the co-pilot had jumped.
WNCN reported that investigators still have not confirmed that the miscreants jumped intentionally at this time, despite the context of the 911 call.
Wake County Emergency Management Chief of Operations Darshan Patel said the initial 911 call prompted a search for the miscreants.
According to WNCN, FAA personnel said over the phone with 911, “We can only make a recovery at this point.” “I mean, I don’t know… I’ve never heard… It’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard.”
According to preliminary information gathered by the National Transportation Safety Board, the airplane suffered significant damage to its landing gear and fuselage.
Crooks’ father, O Crooks, WRAL-TV . told That his son had been working as a flight instructor for more than a year.
“He said a few weeks ago, he wouldn’t do business with anyone in the world. He loved where he was,” he told the station, adding: “I can’t imagine what happened.”
