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A North Carolina pilot died Friday afternoon under mysterious circumstances, officials said.
Charles Hugh Crooks, 23, was one of two people on board a 10-passenger small plane on Friday, but only one landed in Wake County, North Carolina, WRAL reports. increase.
Authorities say Crooks either jumped out of the plane in the air without a parachute or fell.
The remaining copilot reportedly made a safe emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport after reporting to air traffic control that the plane had lost its right wheel and was taken to hospital with minor injuries.
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Dozens of first responders were at Raleigh-Durham International Airport, while several other officers surveyed the local area and the plane’s flight path looking for Crook’s body.
Authorities said his body was found later that night, around 7 p.m., in the woods behind a residential neighborhood in Fuquay Varina, about 30 miles from Raleigh-Durham International Airport.
Police said the body then landed about 30 to 40 feet from the house, and residents alerted law enforcement officers who were investigating the area.
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Wake County emergency management chief Darshan Patel told reporters that law enforcement officers were contacted after residents “heard something in their backyard.”
At a press conference that night, Fuquay-Varina Police Chief Brandon Medina said Crooks’ body had fallen at least 3,500 feet. He said it was not immediately clear if the pilot died before the crash, but authorities were continuing to investigate the incident.
As to whether the investigation is being treated as a criminal investigation, Medina only said the circumstances were “unique.”
“I think this was a first for many of us who were working on this case today,” Patel added.
According to his family, Crooks recently got his pilot’s license and loved to fly.
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“I can’t handle it right now. I don’t know,” said Hew Crooks, the father of the deceased pilot, when asked about the death.
“He got his private pilot license while in college, I think he got it in his sophomore year,” Crooks added. “He said a few weeks ago he wouldn’t trade places with anyone in the world. He loved where he was.”
“I can’t imagine what happened,” the father said of the cryptic details surrounding the death.
“We will figure it out,” he concluded.
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The surviving co-pilot was discharged after being treated for minor injuries, WRAL reported.
The police chief said investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board are leading the investigation. Federal, state, and local authorities are assisting the investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.