Police have evacuated several stores in Tupelo, Mississippi, after a pilot threatened to crash their aircraft into a Walmart.
The pilot of the aircraft is understood to have taken the plane from Tupelo Airport at around 5am, and has been flying over the small town in circles for over an hour.
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- UPDATE Benton County Sheriff department has confirmed they have the pilot in custody. He is alive.
- UPDATE We have lost tracking of the stolen Beech C90A. It looks the aircraft has crashed landed in a field.
- UPDATE The Beech C90A is still airborne at about 1,000ft. We don’t know the fuel level but the aircraft has a max range of 830 nm.
- UPDATE The Beech C90A took off from Tupelo Regional Airport, now flying since 1h15 between 1,200 and 1,400ft.
- UPDATE The pilot who is threatening to crash a plane in Tupelo has been identified as an airport employee.
Authorities have evacuated the area and dispersed as many people as possible and are urging locals to stay out of the way.
Tupelo Police Department say they are in contact with the pilot, who is threatening to intentionally crash the Beechcraft King Air 90 plane.
Currently we have a 29yr old who stole this plane & is threatening to crash it into something. Polices ,ambulances ,& fire trucks are everywhere. Everything is shutdown rn pic.twitter.com/AzebdIa3tP
— KING GANK (@CityKing_Gank_) September 3, 2022
In a statement they said: ‘At approximately 05:00 am TPD was notified that a pilot of an airplane was flying over Tupelo.
