Ice Road Truckers' Star Darrell Ward Dies in Plane Crash

Lowflynjack

Lowflynjack

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Jack Fleetwood
Very sad to hear this. I like this show and he seemed like a good guy.

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2016/08/29/ice-road-truckers-star-darrell-ward-dead-at-52.html

Press Release: It’s with great sadness to report we have lost our Montana Legend at the young age of 52.

Darrell Ward had just left The Great American Truck Show in Dallas, Texas where he enjoyed meeting numerous fans and friends and was heading to Missoula to begin filming a pilot for his new documentary style show involving the recovery of plane wrecks when he and his co-pilot crashed and lost their lives. An investigation is ongoing and more information will be made available at a later time as the National Transportation Safety Board will be handling they investigation.

They things Darrell loved most were his family including his kids and grand-kids & trucking.

Darrell Ward rose to fame with his role on the extremely popular History Channel’s reality show, Ice Road Truckers. Darrell just finished filming Season X earlier this year for the show and had just learned that he had a green light this past weekend for an additional season on the show originally slated to begin filming in the winter of 2017. When Darrell wasn’t hitting the Ice Roads he would be back in Montana doing what Darrel loved best as a log hauler and occasionally helped local authorities fight forest fires.

Trucking has always been a large part of Darrell’s life; from running the harvest rigs with his grandparents and family, to driving trucks from Montana to Alaska and all roads in between. In his free time, you could usually find Darrell giving back to the community any chance he got, he had promoted the most recent food drive to help victims in the Louisiana Floods and was scheduled to appear as the grand marshal for the Truck Convoy for Special Olympics in Nova Scotia.

In his free time, Darrell enjoyed hunting, fishing, camping, dirt bike riding and all things outdoors. A self-proclaimed “ADRENALINE JUNKIE”, Darrell was up for any adventure.

His motto, “ANY ROAD, ANY LOAD” fits his personality perfectly.

While many of you will share in this loss, we ask that you respect the family’s privacy during their time of grief. His manager and best friend M. Bob Stanton and long time friend Chuck Campbell are expected to make a lengthier statement shortly.
 
Hopefully they update that article... it makes it sound like someone else was piloting the plane, but apparently he was the pilot and, ironically, was coming home to film a documentary on plane wreck recoveries.
 
A press release posted on Ward's Facebook page says that Ward and his co-pilot were heading to Missoula to begin filming a pilot for a new documentary-style show involving the recovery of plane wrecks.

Ironic

edit: Dang I missed Cajun beating me to the point.
 
sourdough44 said:
Rock Creek Airport, 4100' Turf, 'poor condition' 3547' MSL.

http://www.ktvq.com/story/32862426/...r-identified-as-victim-of-montana-plane-crash

Missed approach gone bad??
Click to expand...

It sure reads like a stall on a go-around at moderate DA, but there is far too little information to know. For instance, maybe he was dodging birds on short final, or maybe the engine suddenly quit, cargo shifted aft, or a stiff wind quit on a short field approach.

Could be lots of things at this point.
 
sourdough44 said:
Rock Creek Airport, 4100' Turf, 'poor condition' 3547' MSL.

http://www.ktvq.com/story/32862426/...r-identified-as-victim-of-montana-plane-crash

Missed approach gone bad??
Click to expand...
I think so. From the article-

Witnesses who were watching and waiting for the plane to land say it went into a stall as it pulled up and never regained control.
Click to expand...

The fact that the witnesses saw the plane go up says to me that it wasn't a stall on approach from getting too slow. Another factor is this was a 182 and they require a lot of back pressure, or nose up trim at low speed for a landing. If he had it trimmed way far nose up and then went full power at slow speed, that might explain the going up and into a stall.
 
Very sad, he was a large part of why I watched that show.
 
Never really watched the show, just saw it for a minute or two while clicking through the channels. Always sad to hear about a fellow pilot dying though.
 
Just watched an episode a few minutes ago. 52 years old. So sad when one of the good guys are gone. RIP.
 
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