Plane Down After Pilot Threatens To Crash Into Mississippi Walmart

TUPELO, MS — A Mississippi man is facing multiple charges after police say he stole a plane Saturday morning and threatened to crash it into a Tupelo Walmart.

At a news conference Saturday, Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka said Cory Wayne Patterson, 29, was taken into custody and faces charges of grand larceny and terroristic threats.

Around 5 a.m., Patterson stole a small plane from the Tupelo Regional Airport and took off before calling 911 and threatening to crash the aircraft into a Walmart store on West Main Street, according to police.

Authorities evacuated Walmart and neighboring stores, police said. The plane — a Beechcraft King Air C90A — was still in the air more than four hours later but flew away from Tupelo and circled over another nearby community before landing in a field near Ripley.

Authorities said Patterson didn’t have a pilot’s license but had some flight instruction and worked at Tupelo Aviation fueling aircraft, which gave him access to planes.

Negotiators spoke to Patterson and convinced him not to carry out the threat and to land at the airport. Patterson did not have enough experience to land so another pilot attempted to coach him through it.

Gov. Tate Reeves confirmed on Twitter that the situation had been resolved and that no one was injured. He also thanked law enforcement agencies that helped in bringing the aircraft down.

Multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, were involved in the investigation and are working to discern a motive.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.