{"id":4295,"date":"2026-07-12T11:08:03","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T11:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4295"},"modified":"2026-07-12T11:08:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T11:08:03","slug":"heartbroken-daughter-reveals-reason-plane-ended-up-in-a-descending-spiral-killing-her-dad-and-brother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4295","title":{"rendered":"Heartbroken daughter reveals reason plane ended up in a ‘descending spiral,’ killing her dad and brother"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The private plane that crashed after plunging into a \u201cdescending spiral\u201d Thursday night \u2014 killing a father and son on their way home from a baseball game \u2014 had a glitch in the aircraft\u2019s weather tracking system, a heartbroken relative revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Jimmy Don Lewis, 48, was piloting a Beechcraft Baron 55 with his 22-year-old son, Brayden Ty Lewis, when their plane plummeted during a bad storm and crashed in a rural part of Illinois.<\/p>\n

Kelsey Lewis \u2014 who had flown with her father and brother just hours earlier \u2014 said a glitch in the aircraft\u2019s weather-tracking system could be the reason why her family members decided to fly into the eye of the storm that night, the Daily Mail reported.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The plane\u2019s tracking software was 30 minutes off, which tragically led the father and son to believe they would \u201chit the gap\u201d between flying into the eye of the storm and landing safely, Kelsey told the outlet.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Jimmy and Brayden took off from St. Louis Regional Airport, the plane lost contact at 10:48 p.m. \u2014 and investigators believe the plane crashed around 11 p.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The small jet was on in the air for 22 minutes before it crashed, Kelsey said.<\/p>\n

Jimmy was an experienced flyer and would have never risked flying through a storm, the grieving daughter said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad, when it came to flying, he was very, very, cautious of everything,\u201d Kelsey told the outlet. \u201cVery cautious.\u201d<\/p>\n

Based on preliminary flight data, \u201cthe aircraft appeared to begin a turn, possibly in an attempt to avoid the storm, before entering what appeared to be a descending spiral,\u201d the Monroe County Sheriff\u2019s Department said.<\/p>\n

The crash is under investigation. <\/p>\n

The family had flown to The Prairie State earlier on Thursday so Kelsey and her fianc\u00e9 could pick up a new car. <\/p>\n

Jimmy and Brayden decided to attend a St. Louis Cardinals game before flying home to Arkansas.<\/p>\n

Hauntingly, Kelsey said she was unusually concerned about the status of her father\u2019s and brother\u2019s flight as storms rolled into the region.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat whole night, I don\u2019t know why, but I checked the plane status for when they would take off,\u201d she told the Mail.<\/p>\n

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When the plane failed to land in Arkansas, family members began contacting \u201ceveryone to figure out where they were\u201d and \u201cwhy the plane lost contact,\u201d Kelsey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Flight tracking data indicated the plane was last seen near Waterloo, Ill. and the Lewis family started to contact local authorities.<\/p>\n

The family alerted the Monroe County Sheriff\u2019s Department in Waterloo, which then asked Kelsey, her mother, Jill, and Brayden\u2019s long-term girlfriend, Payton, to come to the station.<\/p>\n

\u201cDown, down deep in my mom and I\u2019s heart, when they asked us to come to the police station, we figured something wasn\u2019t okay,\u201d Kelsey tragically recalled.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After waiting for several hours with\u00a0no answers, the sheriff broke the heartbreaking news at 10:30 a.m. that Jimmy and Brayden\u2019s bodies were found earlier that morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a discovery at 7:51 this morning. A plane and two deceased bodies,\u201d Kelsey recalled the sheriff saying.<\/p>\n

While she is still processing the loss of her father and brother, Kelsey remembers the pair as \u201cgivers\u201d who wouldn\u2019t think twice about helping out anyone in need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cNeither one of them would want to see either one of us hurting,\u201d Kelsey said.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Flying was Jimmy and Brayden\u2019s \u201cthing\u201d and they received their pilot licenses together.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad and brother, they were\u2026 oh, they were thick and thin, they were so close, they did everything together,\u201d Kelsey said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was their thing, they liked to fly. We\u2019ve flown to Branson [in Missouri], we\u2019ve flown to Hot Springs [in Arkansas] for dinner, and things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In their honor, Jill and Kelsey plan to start a Lewis Memorial Sports Scholarship at Kansas High School \u2014 where Brayden had attended and was quarterback of the football team, and Jimmy was an active member of the community.<\/p>\n

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The private plane that crashed after plunging into a \u201cdescending spiral\u201d Thursday night — killing a father and son on their way home from a baseball game — had a glitch in the aircraft\u2019s weather tracking system, a heartbroken relative revealed.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4294,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us-news"],"yoast_head":"\nHeartbroken daughter reveals reason plane ended up in a 'descending spiral,' killing her dad and brother - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4295\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Heartbroken daughter reveals reason plane ended up in a 'descending spiral,' killing her dad and brother - 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