Mystery Emerges in North Carolina After Man Reportedly Exits Plane Mid-Flight, Dies

The plane crash victim reportedly appears to have either fallen from the plane or jumped from it prior to the emergency landing.

After reported landing gear malfunctions, a twin-engine cargo airplane made an emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina on Friday, the local media reported.

According to the report, a CASA C-212 twin-engine turboprop light cargo aircraft made an emergency landing at the runway. The body of a 27-year-old male, whose identity has not been released, has been found.

In Fuquay-Varina, the victim was reportedly discovered close to Sunset Lake Road and Hilltop Needmore Road.

The local media reported that one of the crew members who was not wearing a parachute was initially thought to have left the plane when it passed over a body of water close to the West Lake Middle School in neighboring Apex, North Carolina.

At a late Friday news conference, Darshan Patel, operations manager for Wake County's Emergency Management division, revealed that a local neighbor had alerted law enforcement officials who were taking part in the search efforts after hearing something fall on their property. The body was later recovered.

Two people were initially on board, according to recordings of conversations with local air traffic controllers. The crew can be heard describing how the aircraft, which at the time had the callsign Shady 02, lost its right main landing gear wheel following what they called a "rough landing" at Raeford West Airport, southwest of the city of Raeford. After that, they had been able to regain flight.

After the subsequent emergency landing at Raleigh-Durham, the pilot was taken with minor wounds to a local hospital.

The US Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are looking into the accident.

According to the local TV station, there was at least one American Airlines flight diverted as a result of the incident, which caused some other flights to delay their landings.