www.thedrive.com
www.foxnews.com
What could that be…….?It's being kept quiet for a reason.....
North Carolina pilot dies after he mysteriously jumped or fell from plane in midair
A pilot's body was found in Fuquay-Varina, nearly 30 miles away from the Raleigh-Durham International Airport, where a plane he took off in eventually landed without him.
No telling where they show up between the Cape Fear River and Pineland. There is always some night stalker stuff flying over the farm here. All kinds of secret squirrel and regular army training screw ups are not reported I expect. The rural areas around Bragg are so used to this kind of stuff we don't even notice or question Army goings on. Things like catfishing on the river and a helicopter assualt walking up the river towards the Jordan Lake damn are so common we hardly look up.
I have made lots of jumps out a Casa, and you just dont get sucked out the tail-gate when it is down , there a dead air burble on open tail gate when down and pretty smooth air . and I dont even remember ? that basic small 212 tailgate has retractable gear, so really nothing to visually inspect.. if the Gear is locked up and not down . Also.. You have to be a fucking moron to just sit on the end of the open/down gate in-flight without a lanyard or Rig on your back . It's a nice jump plane and nice lightweight cargo hauler . Normally you just dont cruse around with the tailgate down . You maybe could be though, if your whole crew was tight and casual on the rules.
Yes, I mis-spoke and hyperbolized when I said "sucked". You don't get sucked. My particular experience with this involved a Special Operations Jumpmaster and a C-130. While spotting for the DZ and hanging out the door old school, the air stream caught his ruck sack and it deployed on its lowering line pulling him from the aircraft. I personally almost fell out of an MC-130 while Jumpmastering a night jump. We were flying nap-of-the-earth when the aircraft popped up to jump altitude almost throwing me off the ramp. The Casa is a different animal and there is no reason why anyone should fall from it during a training mission. With an open door or ramp, everyone should have had a parachute or safety harness on. When I mentioned SFOD-D it was because they are their own animal and I could easily see someone not wearing a safety harness "because it's none of yourc damn business, that's why".
But there's a hell of a breeze going by the optional side doors if you had them(some pics of this model have one some have two, some rear of cockpit, and some behind the rear gear). Story said they lost a landing wheel Depening on how it was set up it could have had a side door a couple feet behind it or behind the cockpit. No one said he was sucked out the tailgate.
