As 22-year-old flight instructor Timothy McKellar Jr. struggled to navigate the small, single-engine plane he was piloting alongside his 18-year-old student the night of Sept. 27, 2023, he told air traffic controllers the pair were doing the "best we can."

That's because just outside the thin, plexiglass windows of the Piper PA28 aircraft ferrying McKellar and his student, Conner Quisenberry, winds howled at speeds of more than 55 mph.

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