A heartbroken daughter has revealed a possible factor behind the devastating plane crash that killed her father and brother as they flew home from a baseball game — saying the aircraft’s weather-tracking information may have been about 30 minutes behind.

Jimmy Don Lewis, 48, was piloting a Beechcraft Baron 55 with his 22-year-old son, Brayden Ty Lewis, when the aircraft encountered severe weather and crashed in a rural area of Illinois on Thursday night.

Kelsey Lewis, who had flown with her father and brother just hours earlier, said the aircraft’s weather-tracking software was reportedly showing delayed information. According to Kelsey, that delay may have led Jimmy and Brayden to believe they could “hit the gap” in the storm and safely continue their flight.

Shortly after taking off from St. Louis Regional Airport, the aircraft lost contact at approximately 10:48 p.m. Investigators believe the crash occurred around 11 p.m. Kelsey said the plane had been airborne for only about 22 minutes.

She strongly emphasized that her father was an experienced and extremely cautious pilot who would never knowingly take an unnecessary risk with dangerous weather.

“My dad, when it came to flying, he was very, very cautious of everything,” Kelsey said. “Very cautious.”

Preliminary flight data has provided a disturbing picture of the aircraft’s final moments. According to the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, the plane appeared to begin a turn — possibly in an attempt to avoid the storm — before entering what investigators described as a “descending spiral.”

The exact cause of the crash remains under investigation, and the reported weather-tracking issue has not yet been established by investigators as the cause.

Earlier that Thursday, the family had flown to Illinois so Kelsey and her fiancé could pick up a new car. Jimmy and Brayden later decided to attend a St. Louis Cardinals baseball game before beginning their flight home to Arkansas.

As storms moved across the region, Kelsey said she felt unusually worried about her father and brother.

“That whole night, I don’t know why, but I checked the plane status for when they would take off,” she recalled.

When the aircraft failed to arrive in Arkansas, the family desperately began calling people and trying to understand why the plane had lost contact. Flight-tracking information showed its last known position near Waterloo, Illinois, prompting the Lewis family to contact local authorities.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Department later asked Kelsey, her mother Jill, and Brayden’s longtime girlfriend Payton to come to the station.

“Down, down deep in my mom and I’s heart, when they asked us to come to the police station, we figured something wasn’t okay,” Kelsey recalled.

After hours of agonizing uncertainty, the family received the news they had feared.

Kelsey recalled the sheriff telling them that a plane and two deceased individuals had been discovered earlier that morning.

Jimmy and Brayden were gone.

Beyond their shared love of aviation, Kelsey remembers her father and brother as “givers” — two people who would never hesitate to help someone in need.

“My dad and brother, they were… oh, they were thick and thin, they were so close, they did everything together,” she said.

Flying was their special bond. Jimmy and Brayden earned their pilot licenses together and regularly took trips by air, sometimes flying to Branson, Missouri, or Hot Springs, Arkansas, simply to have dinner and spend time together.

“That was their thing, they liked to fly,” Kelsey said.

Now, while the family struggles to process an unimaginable double loss, they are planning to ensure Jimmy and Brayden’s legacy lives on.

Jill and Kelsey plan to establish the Lewis Memorial Sports Scholarship at Kansas High School, where Brayden had attended and played quarterback for the football team and where Jimmy was an active member of the community.

The investigation into the crash remains ongoing.