Co-pilot who exited a plane in mid-air during a North Carolina flight was 'visibly upset' and possibly sick prior to departing without a parachute, NTSB says

The co-pilot who fell to his death after getting off an aircraft mid-flight in North Carolina may have been sick and was described as "visibly upset" prior to exiting the plane without a parachute, according to a preliminary report from the National Transportation and Safety Board.

Two people -- a pilot-in-charge and a second-in-charge -- were initially on the July 29 flight, but only one person was on the plane when it landed, the Federal Aviation Administration said at the time. The body of Charles Hew Crooks, the 23-year-old second-in-charge, was discovered hours later in the backyard of a home in Fuquay-Varina, about 18 miles south of Raleigh, police said.

The plane, a twin-engine CASA CN-212 Aviocar, was being operated as a skydiving flight, the NTSB report said. It had already flown two skydiving runs and was on its way to pick up a third group. As Crooks flew the plane on its descent to Raeford West Airport, the plane descended below the tree line and "dropped," according to the report.