North Carolina pilot dies after jumping from jet midair

• Charles Hew Crooks, 23, was one of two people on board the plane when it lost a wheel.
• His body was found near a residential neighbourhood in Wake County, North Carolina.
• Authorities are investigating if he jumped or fell from the plane without a parachute.

A North Carolina pilot died under unexplained circumstances on Friday afternoon, officials reported.

Charles Hew Crooks, 23, was one of two people aboard the small, 10-person plane on Friday, but it landed in Wake County, North Carolina with only one passenger, according to WRAL.

If Crooks jumped or fell from the plane without a parachute, authorities state so.

As per the report, the remaining co-pilot made a safe emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after reporting to an air traffic control that the plane had lost its right wheel.

He was then transported to the hospital with minor injuries.

Dozens of first responders were at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, and more officers were looking for Crooks’ body around the airport and along the plane’s flight path.

Later that evening, at 7 p.m., his body was discovered in the woods outside a Fuquay-Varina residential neighbourhood, around 30 miles from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, according to authorities.

Police say that the body landed about 30 to 40 feet from a house. The people who lived there told law enforcement officers who were searching the area about the body.

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Wake County Emergency Management chief of operations Darshan Patel said people called police after “heard something in their backyard.”

Chief Brandon Medina of Fuquay-Varina said Crooks’ body dropped 3,500 feet. Authorities are investigating if the pilot was dead before the fall.

Chief Medina didn’t say if the investigation was a criminal one or not; all he said was that the situation was “unique.”

Patel continued, “I believe this was a first for many of us that were working on this incident today.”

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