Authorities in Mississippi breathed a sigh of relief when an airport worker in a stolen plane made it safely to the ground after circling over the city of Tupelo for five hours, flying erratically and threatening to crash into a Walmart.
The man who stole the plane, 29-year-old Cory Wayne Patterson, was arrested after he landed the aircraft in a soybean field. He’s been charged with grand larceny and making terroristic threats, Tupelo police chief John Quaka said, and may also face federal charges.
Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves announced on Twitter just after 10:30 a.m. CDT that the “situation has been resolved and that no one was injured.”
Patterson had been an employee of Tupelo Aviation for 10 years, police said. He had some flight training, according to Quaka, but did not know how to land.
Quaka said it was not immediately known why, shortly after 5 a.m., Patterson took off in a fully fueled twin-engine Beechcraft King Air C90A. Fifteen minutes later, Patterson called a Lee County 911 dispatcher to say he planned to crash the plane into a Tupelo Walmart, Quaka said. Officers evacuated people from the Walmart and a nearby convenience store.
The airport’s tower is not staffed until 6 a.m., Quaka said, making this likely a “crime of opportunity.”
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Reeves warned residents near Tupelo, Mississippi, to “be on alert.”
Officials almost persuaded Patterson to land the plane safely in Tupelo, even though he said that he didn’t know how to land, Quaka said at a Saturday afternoon press conference. Officials even called in a private pilot to assist.
But Patterson abandoned that plan, Quaka said, and instead flew north, eventually bringing the aircraft to ground level. The plane landed near Ripley, Mississippi, about about 85 miles southeast of Memphis, Tennessee, and about 45 miles northwest of Tupelo.
The aircraft was damaged, but “believe it or not the aircraft is intact,” Quaka said.
Quaka said Patterson, on his Facebook page, posted what appeared to be a goodbye message at about 9:30 a.m. The message said he “never actually wanted to hurt anyone.”
Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan said at one point, Patterson contacted family members during the flight. The mayor said he hopes Patterson “will get the help he needs.”
Leslie Criss, a magazine editor who lives in Tupelo, woke up early and was watching the situation on TV and social media. Several of her friends were outside watching the plane circle overhead.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in this town,” Criss said. “It’s a scary way to wake up on a Saturday morning.”
Michael Canders, director of the Aviation Center at Farmingdale State College in New York, called the incident “a wake-up call” for general aviation airports and their staff.
Contributing: Jeanine Santucci, USA TODAY, and The Associated Press