Small-plane pilot held after threatening to crash into Walmart store in US city
New Indian ExpressThe twin-engine Beechcraft plane, which had circled erratically over the city of Tupelo and a nearby area for hours, landed around 11:25 am Eastern time, Connie Strickland, a dispatcher with the Benton County sheriff's office, told AFP. The pilot, identified by Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka, as Corey Wayne Patterson of nearby Shannon, will be charged with grand larceny and making terrorist threats, CNN reported. Quaka said Patterson had worked for 10 years for Tupelo Aviation -- where his job included fueling aircraft -- and had some flight instruction but did not appear to be a licensed pilot. The pilot had called a 911 emergency operator in Tupelo around 5:00 am, "threatening to intentionally crash into Walmart on West Main," an earlier police statement said. Quaka said Tupelo police negotiators made radio contact with Patterson and managed to persuade him not to crash the plane but to land it at the airport.
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