A father and son died in a plane crash due to a 'glitch', a relative has said. Jimmy Don Lewis, 48, and his son, Brayden Ty Lewis, 22, crashed into a rural field just south of St Louis, Missouri, at 11pm on Thursday. They had flown to the city to see the St Louis Cardinals take on the Milwaukee Brewers at Busch Stadium earlier that evening.
Jimmy was piloting the Beech 95-B55 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 trying to swerve around the bad weather, only to enter a descending spiral just before 10.40pm. This was the last time ground crews heard from the small jet, just 22 minutes into the roughly one-hour-and-40-minute-long trip. Within only two seconds, the craft had plummeted 600 feet.
Relative blames weather-tracking glitch
Kelsey Lewis, who had flown with her father and brother just hours earlier, said a glitch in the private aircraft's weather-tracking system is to blame. The plane's tracking software was 30 minutes off, she told the Daily Mail, which led Jimmy and Brayden to think they could 'hit the gap' between flying through the eye of the storm and landing safely.
'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.'
When the plane failed to land, family members tried to figure out 'why the plane lost contact' as the authorities launched a search at 2.30am Friday. The aircraft was discovered in a tree line behind Columbia Quarry near T Road at around 7.40am.
Sheriff confirms fatalities
The Sheriff's Department said: '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.'
The authorities had earlier asked Kelsey, mum 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 7.51am this morning. A plane and two deceased bodies.'
Family remembers father and son as 'givers'
Jimmy and Brayden, from Siloam Springs, Arkansas, were 'givers', Kelsey said, with a passion for flying. The father and son did everything together – they even received their pilot licences together. '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.
