An airport worker who knew how to take off but not land, stole a small airplane Saturday and threatened to crash it into a Walmart, circling for five hours over unnerved Mississippians before ending the flight safely in a soybean field where US police arrested him.
Authorities said at a news conference held earlier, that 29 year old Cory Wayne Patterson, was uninjured after the rough landing shortly after posting a goodbye message to his parents and sister on Facebook. The message said he “never actually wanted to hurt anyone.”
After an anxious morning of watching the plane’s meandering path overhead, Tupelo Mayor Todd Jordan called the resolution “the best case scenario.”
No one was injured.
Patterson was employed fueling planes at the Tupelo Regional Airport, giving him access to the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air C90A.