This story hits me particularly hard, because I have a CDL-A and I was supposed to be a truck driver myself. Here is the official announcement:
I know that Darrell had a son, who he loved dearly and kept a picture on his dash of him.
Here is the official story via Fox News:
“Ice Road Truckers” star Darrell Ward died in a plane crash Sunday, a rep for the show told FOX411. He was 52.
“We are saddened by the tragic loss of Darrell Ward, a beloved member of the HISTORY family. He will be greatly missed and our thoughts are with his family during this difficult time.”
According to Ward’s Facebook page, the reality star was headed back to Missoula, Montana, after meeting with fans at The Great American Truck Show in Dallas, Texas.
Ward was set to begin filming a pilot for a new documentary-style TV show about plane wreck recoveries. Ward and his co-pilot died.
“An investigation is ongoing and more information will be made available at a later time as the National Transportation Safety Board will be handling the investigation,” a statement on his Facebook page said. “[The] things Darrell loved most were his family, including his kids and grand-kids & trucking.”
Ward became a fan favorite over the past four seasons of the History Channel’s docu-series. His motto was “any road, any load” and he was a self-proclaimed “adrenaline junkie.”
“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,” the statement read. “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.”
There is more info here:
The Cessna 182-D crashed on the edge of interstate as it appeared to be attempting to land at the Rock Creek Airport south of Clinton.
Missoula County Sheriff’s Department Patrol Captain Bill Burt said witnesses said the plane appeared to be attempting to land at the south end of the runway.
“Something went drastically wrong,’’ he said. “The plane was trying to climb and appeared to have stalled.’’
To say that this incident here has hit the trucking World very hard, would be the understatement of the century.
The trucking industry has been reeling recently by the shooting death of a terminal manager in Texas. Everybody had just recently gotten over that and now this.
The sad part about it is Darrell Ward was at the Great American truck show in Dallas Texas and a few people who I have communications with actually took pictures with and made video with Darrell Ward before he left the show.
So, needless to say there are a lot of people right now who are truck drivers who are absolutely numb right now with unbelief and grief.
My heart goes out to Darrell’s son and the rest of his family God only knows what they’re going through right now so my thoughts and prayers go to Darrell’s son and everybody in his family.
I think the important thing to remember is this right here: people like Darrell Ward and the others from Ice Road Truckers; to us people on the outside they are television stars: famous people who we just see on a TV screen.
But in reality, they’re real people, with families, children and grandchildren and when something like this happens; it hits hard and it’s hard on everybody. So, I think everybody should probably just say a small prayer tonight for this Man’s family. 😔🙁😟