A small aircraft bound for Golden Triangle Regional Airport crashed Wednesday evening in Oktibbeha County, near a residential area on Old Highway 25 south of Longview and Poor House roads.
The pilot was the only person on the plane, and he was airlifted to North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo in serious but stable condition, OCH Regional Medical Center Emergency Services Director Michael Hunt said.
The plane was a fixed-wing single-engine Cessna built in 1965 that took off from Texas bound for GTRA, a Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office incident report indicates. It was in the approach phase of landing when it crashed.
Federal Aviation Administration records list Robert J. Young of Conroe, Texas, as the plane’s owner.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA have taken over the investigation from the Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Office, said Jarvis Boyd, deputy director of the Oktibbeha County Emergency Management Agency.
Tammy Carlisle, who lives near the site of the crash, said she noticed the emergency vehicles and drove to get a closer look at the scene. The plane looked like it had hit some trees, and one of the wings came off, she said.
“I’m surprised it didn’t hit a house because there are houses on both sides of the street,” Carlisle said. “That pilot did a great job (avoiding them).”
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