Name: Family grieves 23-year-old pilot's tragic death
Uploaded: 2022-07-30T18:55:00-0400
Duration: 179452
Description: Hew Crooks said flying was a dream his firstborn son had his entire life, and he was proud that his son had made it a reality.

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Hew Crooks said flying was a dream his firstborn son had his entire life, and he was proud that his son had made it a reality.

<p>ON APPLE AND ANDROID DEVICES. YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD THAT? I'M TELLING YOU. IT'S VERY, VERY HELPFUL. WELL, FOR THE FIRST TIME WE'RE HEARING FROM THE FAMILY OF THE COPILOT WHO DIED YESTERDAY JUST BEFORE AN EMERGENCY LANDING AT RDU CHARLES, HUGH CROOKS FATHER TELLS US HIS SON WAS LIVING HIS DREAM IN AVIATION WRAL'S. KEENAN WILLARD JOINS US LIVE AT THE AIRPORT NOW WHERE THAT EMERGENCY LANDING TOOK PLACE. AND KEANE IN THE FAMILY SAYS THEY'RE STRUGGLING TO UNDERSTAND THIS LOSS. WELL, WE HEARD FROM HIS FATHER OVER AND OVER AGAIN WAS THAT CHARLES COURSE LOVE TO FLY. IT WAS HIS LIFELONG DREAM. HE'D ACTUALLY BEEN LIVING IT OUT RIGHT HERE IN RALEIGH, WORKING AS A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR BEFORE JUMPING ON WITH THE OTHER COMPANY. &gt;&gt; HE WAS ACTUALLY WORKING WITH WHEN THIS TRAGIC INCIDENT HAPPENED. JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. RIGHT NOW, THIS FAMILY IS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW DID THIS TAKE PLACE &gt;&gt; I DON'T KNOW WHAT I MEAN. WE WE CAN PROCESS RIGHT NOW. WE DO NOW. &gt;&gt; TODAY SHE CROOKS IS MOURNING THE SUDDEN LOSS OF HIS OLDEST SON. 23 YEAR-OLD CHARLES, YOU CROOKS WAS ONE OF 3 CHILDREN FLYING FANATIC WHO ALWAYS WANTED TO TAKE TO THE SKIES. &gt;&gt; THE COUPLE WEEKS AGO WE WOULDN'T TRADE PLACES WITH ANYBODY IN THE WORLD. THE CASE. LOVE. &gt;&gt; THAT'S WHERE HE WAS THEN CAME YESTERDAY AFTERNOON, A PLANE THAT CHARLES CROOKS WAS CO PILOTING MADE AN EMERGENCY LANDING AT RDU AFTER LOSING PART OF ITS LANDING GEAR. THE PILOT SUFFERED MINOR INJURIES DURING THE INCIDENT. BUT CROOKS WAS NO LONGER INSIDE. INVESTIGATORS SAY CROOKS, IT EITHER FALLEN OR JUMPED OUT OF THE PLANE WHILE IT WAS STILL IN THE AIR WITHOUT A PARACHUTE HOURS LATER, POLICE FOUND HIS BODY IN A BACKYARD IN THIS NEIGHBORHOOD IN FUQUAY-VARINA. I CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT HAPPENED. I DON'T KNOW. WELL AND SO ON. &gt;&gt; YOU KNOW, &gt;&gt; I FIGURE IT OUT. I SUPPOSE. &gt;&gt; HIS FATHER SAID CROOKS AND WORKED AS A FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR FOR OVER A YEAR AND HAD BEEN CERTIFIED IN FLYING IN JUST ABOUT ANY CONDITIONS. THEY'RE NOW WAITING FOR INVESTIGATORS TO DETERMINE WHAT LED UP TO HIS FINAL MOMENTS AND WORDS WERE WE'RE A STRONG FAMILY OR A VERY LOVING FAMILY AND &gt;&gt; SO &gt;&gt; A DISH AND LEAVES A HOLE THAT WAS JUST DON'T KNOW HOW HOW WILL THAT? &gt;&gt; I MEAN, YOU CAN HEAR THE EMOTION IN HIS VOICE AS HE SPOKE WITH OUR REPORTERS. IT'S IT'S HARD FOR THEM TO IMAGINE WHAT LED TO THIS INCIDENT. AND TONIGHT WE'RE PUSHING FOR ANSWERS ABOUT SAFETY POLICIES FROM THE COMPANY THAT ACTUALLY OWNED THE PLANE INVOLVED IN THIS INCIDENT. YOU CAN HEAR MORE ABOUT THAT ON THE WRAL EVENING NEWS AT 10 AND 11. JULIAN, STILL SO MANY QUESTIONS IN THIS ONE CAN WILL REPORTING LIVE AT</p>

Keenan Willard

John Rector

Cory Dinkel

Family grieves 23-year-old pilot's tragic death

Father of co-pilot who died says flying was his son's dream

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I'm meteorologist, Kat Campbell and the wr severe weather center, the wr weather alert day will go into tomorrow. We have seen our first round of storms clear the area, but overnight we expect more storms to move in between about three and 9 a.m. Those should be more widespread but with a little bit less energy in the atmosphere, the primary concern there would be damaging winds and then we'll have a low storm threat as we head into tomorrow afternoon. So let's take a look at future casts. Storms continue to clear out from the early evening round. We should be dry 1011 midnight. It's not until about three or 4 a.m. that we begin to see storms move into our western counties and those are going to be with us during the early morning hours. 6 a.m. Rain could be around on a pretty widespread basis, impacting the morning commute. We'll see a good chance for rain seven perhaps lingering into 89 o'clock. After that, we should start to see the rain pushing out and storm chances would be pretty low for the remainder of the day. But in the morning, beware of rain and storms at the bus stop. You may want to wait in the car with your kids if you're able to, especially if there's any thunder or lightning around. Meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner will keep you up to date on that starting at 430 tomorrow on wr news. So be sure to check in with her before you leave the house and head to the bus stop. The good news is storms clear out just in time for Saturday and Sunday. We'll still have some scattered storms around Friday afternoon. Saturday though, it is cooler. It's drier, not so humid. 74 partly cloudy, a 20% chance for rain. Very, very late Saturday night and most of us aren't going to see that 79 for Mother's Day on Sunday. It ends up being a beautiful and dry day for Mother's Day 59 at 8 a.m. 70 by lunchtime upper seventies for the afternoon. And we get a break from the big heat. No more nineties on our seven day forecast, high temperatures are going to be still above normal most days, but a bit closer to normal for this time of year in the seventies and eighties, at least Thursday remains a WRL weather alert day, at least during the morning hours. Friday, we've got some scattered storms a 50% chance. Those are more typical afternoon, summertime storms and then over the weekend things look pretty nice. Overall, the humidity drops in a significant way this weekend we stay pretty comfortable on Monday of next week, but late Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, we could see a soaking round of rain arrive. Certainly good news that we are seeing the rain around here. We just don't need these, the storm threat to go with it.

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Family grieves 23-year-old pilot's tragic death

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