A plane which circled in the air for more than four hours while its pilot threatened to crash it into the ground has landed safely. US officials say the situation was resolved with no injuries and the pilot being taken into custody.
The plane started circling over Tupelo, in northern Mississippi, at around 5am local time today (September 3) - 11am UK time. After more than four hours, state governor Tate Reeves announced on Twitter that the 'situation has been resolved and that no-one was injured'.
He thanked law enforcement agencies that helped in bringing the aircraft down, before arresting the pilot. Earlier, the Tupelo Police Department said the plane had flown away from Tupelo and was circling over another community nearby.
Authorities believe the aircraft - a Beechcraft King Air C90A - was stolen and are working to determine whether the pilot who threatened to crash the plane is an employee of a local airport. Multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, were involved in the investigation.
A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration said the agency is aware of the flight and was coordinating with local law enforcement. Law enforcement told the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal that the plane had left the airspace around Tupelo and was flying near a Toyota manufacturing plant in nearby Blue Springs.
Police had said the pilot of the small airplane was threatening to crash the aircraft into a Walmart store. The Tupelo Police Department said that the Walmart and a nearby convenience store had been evacuated.
An online flight tracking service showed the plane meandering in the sky for several hours and following a looping path. 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,” Ms Criss told The Associated Press. “It’s a scary way to wake up on a Saturday morning.”
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