A father and son were killed when their private plane crashed in rural Missouri due to a glitch in the aircraft's weather-tracking system, according to a family member. Jimmy Don Lewis, 48, and his son Brayden Ty Lewis, 22, died after their Beech 95-B55 plummeted into a field south of St Louis on Thursday night.
Flight Details and Crash Sequence
The pair had flown to St Louis to watch the St Louis Cardinals play the Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium earlier that evening. Jimmy was piloting the plane from St Louis Regional Airport in Bethalto to Siloam Springs Municipal Airport when a storm struck. Aviation tracking data from ADS-B Exchange shows Jimmy attempting to avoid the bad weather, but the aircraft entered a descending spiral just before 10:40 pm. Within two seconds, the plane dropped 600 feet. This was the last communication from the aircraft, only 22 minutes into the roughly one-hour-40-minute journey.
Family Blames Weather-Tracking Glitch
Kelsey Lewis, who had flown with her father and brother hours earlier, said a glitch in the plane's weather-tracking system was to blame. The software was 30 minutes off, she told the Daily Mail, leading Jimmy and Brayden to believe they could safely navigate through a gap in the storm. 'My dad, when it came to flying, he was very, very cautious of everything,' Kelsey said. 'Very cautious.' She added, 'That whole night, I don't know why, but I checked the plane status for when they would take off.'
Search and Recovery
When the plane failed to land, family members tried to determine 'why the plane lost contact' as authorities launched a search at 2:30 am Friday. The aircraft was discovered in a tree line behind Columbia Quarry near T Road at around 7:40 am. The Sheriff's Department stated: 'The missing Beechcraft Baron 55 private aircraft has been located, and the operation has transitioned from a search and rescue mission to a recovery operation. Tragically, fatalities have been confirmed.' Authorities had earlier asked Kelsey, her mother Jill, and Brayden's girlfriend Payton to come to the station. 'Down, down deep in my mom and I's heart, when they asked us to come to the police station, we figured something wasn't okay,' Kelsey said. She recalled the sheriff telling her: 'There was a discovery at 7:51 am this morning. A plane and two deceased bodies.'
Victims Remembered
Jimmy and Brayden, from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, were described as 'givers' with a passion for flying. They did everything together, including receiving their pilot licenses simultaneously. 'That was their thing; they liked to fly. We've flown to Branson [in Missouri], we've flown to Hot Springs [in Arkansas] for dinner, and things like that,' Kelsey added. Aviation officials have launched an investigation, the National Transportation Safety Board said on X. The Beech 95-B55 model is registered to a locksmith in Watts, Oklahoma, according to public records.
