The plane from which the man fell without a parachute lost its wheel after takeoff and planned an emergency landing, audio recordings show

NEW details have emerged of the death of a man who fell from a plane without a parachute after it was revealed the plane lost a wheel after takeoff.

Charles Crooks’ family are looking for answers after the mysterious death of the 23-year-old.

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“I don’t know,” Hew Crooks, Charles’ father, told WRAL. “We can’t edit it at the moment, I don’t know.”

Charles, a known “flight fanatic,” was the co-pilot of a small plane that made an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport on Friday.

However, Charles was nowhere to be seen when it landed.

His body was later found after a neighbor stopped officers and described hearing “something” in their backyard in Fuquay-Varina.

Flight tracking software showed that both pilots called air traffic control to inform them that the plane’s right main wheel had fallen off.

One of the co-pilots said they tried to land at Raeford Airport and they “made a hard landing and decided to fly around and at that point we lost control”.

During the flight, one of the pilots called Fayetteville Air Traffic Control for help in rerouting to RDU.

One of them says, “We lost our right wheel – we’d like to continue to Raleigh and land there.”

The two co-pilots were heard saying there was enough fuel to fly four more hours before they had to land before someone asked, “Quick question, how do you intend to land at Raleigh-Durham?”

The response from one of the men was, “Go as low as you can and I guess we’ll put it on the stomach.”

Then one of the pilots, during a radio call, informed the authorities that the co-pilot jumped out of the plane without a parachute.

The plane landed on a runway, but the missing wheel caused it to spin and slide onto the grass next to the runway.

The plane’s pilot was taken to the hospital and officials said he was fine.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration will lead the investigation.

According to Hew, Charles had earned his pilot’s license while in college.

“I think he understood that, when he was a sophomore, he said a few weeks ago he wouldn’t swap places with anyone in the world. He loved where he was.”

His father added that Charles has worked as a flight instructor for over a year and is certified to fly in all conditions.

“We are a strong family and we are a very loving family. But this leaves a hole,” his father said. “I don’t know. We can’t process it right now.”

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