Darrell Ward (August 13, 1964 – August 28, 2016) was an American

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

personality. He was a truck driver featured on ''

Ice Road Truckers ''Ice Road Truckers'' (commercially abbreviated ''IRT'') is a reality television series that aired on History Channel from 2007 to 2017. It featured the activities of drivers who operated trucks on ice roads crossing frozen lakes and rivers, i ...

'' from season six in 2012 until his death. He was from

Deer Lodge, Montana Deer Lodge is a city in and the county seat of Powell County, Montana, Powell County, Montana, United States. The population was 2,938 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Description The city is perhaps best known as the home of th ...

. On August 28, 2016, Ward died in a plane crash while travelling in a single-engined

Cessna 182 Skylane The Cessna 182 Skylane is an American four-seat, single-engined light airplane built by Cessna of Wichita, Kansas. It has the option of adding two child seats in the baggage area. Introduced in 1956, the 182 has been produced in a ...

with pilot Mark Melotz. They had departed from

Missoula Missoula ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Missoula County, Montana, Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluence with the Bitterroot River, Bitterroot and Blackfoot River (Montana), ...

53 minutes prior to the crash and were attempting to land at a nearby airstrip in

Clinton, Montana Clinton is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Missoula County, Montana, United States. It is part of the Missoula metropolitan area. The population was 1,018 at the 2020 census. Originally established in 1883 as a ...

. The

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

concluded the cause of the accident to be "The sudden right turn on approach to landing for reasons that could not be determined because a post-accident examination did not reveal any anomalies that would have precluded normal operation."National Transportation Safety Board Aviation Accident Final Report - Accident Number WPR16FA170
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References

1964 births 2016 deaths Accidental deaths in Montana Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States American truck drivers People from Missoula, Montana People from Deer Lodge, Montana Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2016 Ice Road Truckers {{US-tv-bio-stub