A CASA C-212-200 aircraft made an emergency landing on the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, RDU (on July 29th) following a failed attempt to land at Raeford West Airport in nearby NR20.
The pilot in command (PIC) was present on the aircraft at the moment it landed. Not on the plane was the second in command (SIC), 23-year-old Charles Hew Crooks, who early news reports described as either “falling” or “jumping” out of the plane without a parachute sometime after it was diverted to RDU after the initial botched landing at NR20 was said to have damaged the plane’s landing gear.
Two Raleigh tower air traffic control controllers called 911 to report that the pilot who finally landed the aircraft told them, en route towards RDU, that his copilot had fallen out.
“This is from Raleigh Airport. The pilot was coming from Raleigh Airport. His co-pilot jumped out of the aircraft,” an FAA employee says before providing the coordinates of where the incident unfolded.
“So, they said he jumped out of the aircraft,” the employee says. “His co-pilot jumped out without the parachute, so he might have impact to the ground.”
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A different FAA worker who takes over the call says: “Yeah, I know. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know. This is the craziest thing I’ve ever dealt with.
“I mean, I’m sure this pilot is going to be shaken up. It’s not something I know. He literally just said, ‘My pilot just jumped out,’” the employee says. It is not known who the FAA employees were.
Tuesday saw the NTSB release their preliminary report in PDF format. This relied heavily on the information supplied by the pilot as well as various recordings.
According to the report, the unidentified pilot said that 20 minutes into the flight to RDU, Crooks “became visibly upset about the hard landing” at NR20. Here’s what else the NTSB report noted:
The crew coordinated with airtraffic control, operations, their customer and the crew to plan their approach to RDU. The SIC was responsible for communication with airtraffic control and the PIC flew. According to the PIC, there was some turbulence on the flight. After emergency briefings were conducted, the SIC began becoming upset at the difficult landing. According to preliminary information from Federal Aviation Administration, the SIC communicated with air traffic controls up until this point.
The SIC confirmed that he had received a direction from air traffic control in his last transmission. This was what the PIC said.
this time the SIC opened his side cockpit window, and “may have gotten sick.” The PIC took over radio communications, and the SIC lowered the ramp in the back of the airplane, indicating that felt like he was going to be sick and needed air. PIC said that the SIC then got out of his seat and removed his headset. The SIC left the aircraft via the aft exit ramp.PIC claimed that one could grab a bar about six feet above the ramp. But he was not present to witness the SIC grab the bars before he exited the aircraft. To search for the SIC, the PIC turned the aircraft to the right. In a radio transmission to air traffic control about 1 ½ minutes after the SIC’s radio acknowledgement of the course heading, the
PIC informed air traffic control that the copilot was leaving without his parachute.
So did he jump or did he fall – or did something else happen? The preliminary report, which notes it is subject to change, doesn’t draw any conclusions.
But from what his family and friends have said about Crooks, it just doesn’t make sense that he would have committed suicide over a bad landing for which he blamed himself.
Devin Lynch was a friend of Crooks’ for 3 years and told WRAL just days after the accident that he wanted to know what the pilots were saying on their cockpit voice recorders.
“I would be interested in hearing the CVR recording because I’d like to hear hear what was going on in the cockpit that wasn’t being communicated to air traffic control,” said Lynch.
Lynch said from the few years he’s known Crooks, it feels out of character for him to jump from a plane without a parachute.
“I’ve known Charles for three years. Since the first time I saw him, he was an experienced pilot. I’ve flown with him a few times, and I can tell you firsthand what kind of pilot he was. He followed every rule to the letter,” he said.
Watch:
I’d like to hear it, too, especially considering according to the NTSB report there was about a minute and a half between the last communication between Crooks and the tower and when the PIC alerted them that Crooks had jumped.
I mean, he had already opened his window according to the PIC, which obviously would let air in so why would he open up the plane’s ramp just to “get fresh air”? Not trying to push any conspiracy theories here, but a lot of this just doesn’t make sense.