Andy DehnartIce Road Truckers star Darrell Ward was flying to Missoula, Montana, to film the pilot episode of a reality show about plane crash investigations when the plane he was flying in crashed Sunday afternoon. Both he and the Cessna 182’s pilot were killed.
Darrell, 52, appeared in seasons six through 10, which is now currently airing on the History Channel. Production was completed for season 10, Reuters reported.
Missoula County Sheriff’s Department Patrol Captain Bill Burt told The Missoulian, “Something went drastically wrong. The plane was trying to climb and appeared to have stalled.”
KPAX reported that that National Transportation Safety Board recovered the aircraft and transported it to a location, but noted the “investigation could take months to complete, as representatives from the companies who manufactured the plane and its engine will also comb through the wreckage.”
NTSB lead investigator Thomas Little told the TV station, “We’re in the preliminary stages of this whole thing and it takes awhile. We don’t get in a rush, we’re very methodical in how we do this.”
A private memorial service is being held Saturday, and a note on his Facebook page asked those who would donate flowers to instead give money to “a college fund [that] has been set up for his children and grandchildren.”
A message posted Monday announced his death:
“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.”