MYSTERY

Pilot Who Fell to His Death Said He ‘Needed Air’ Before ‘Exiting’ Plane Mid-Air

Charles Hew Crooks, 23, was “visibly upset” about an earlier emergency, a report says.

A pilot who fell to his death from a plane he was flying in the skies over North Carolina last month said he “needed air” before he jumped out of the aircraft without a parachute, a report says. The body of Charles Hew Crooks, 23, was later found in a backyard in Fuquay-Varina after the July 29 incident. According to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, Crooks, who was second-in-command of the twin-engine airplane, became “visibly upset” after the plane, which was being used to ferry skydivers, “dropped” and damaged its landing gear during a botched landing, forcing the pilots to abort and pull up once again. About 20 minutes after the emergency, Crooks stopped communicating with air-traffic control at Raleigh-Durham International Airport and opened a side window in the cockpit as he “may have gotten sick,” the unnamed commanding pilot told investigators. Crooks then apologized to the other pilot, removed his headset, before “exiting” the plane through its aft ramp door.