Man arrested after stealing plane in Mississippi Transcript

Speaker 1: (00:01)
What started with a plane police say was stolen and threats against a local Walmart ended in what one official described as the best case scenario. ABC’s Christine Sloan has the details.

Christine Sloan: (00:15)
Early Saturday morning, Tupelo police began warning people in the area that a pilot was flying over the city, threatening to intentionally crash.

Speaker 3: (00:24)
Cory Wayne Patterson stole a Beechcraft King Air C-90 twin engine aircraft, and took off from the Tupelo Airport today.

Christine Sloan: (00:34)
Officers say shortly after taking off, the suspect dialed 911 and said he was going to intentionally crash into the local Walmart. Investigators say 29 year old Cory Wayne Patterson was an employee of Tupelo Aviation, working for the company for 10 years as a lineman fueling aircraft.

Speaker 4: (00:53)
After the initial threat, he did not want to hurt himself or anyone else and I believe that we had what you would think would be the best case scenario.

Christine Sloan: (01:05)
Tracking data from flightradar24.com shows the plane’s erratic route over Northern Mississippi. As the pilot zigzagged for several hours, the aircraft began running out of fuel around 9:30 AM. That’s when the suspect posted what investigators are calling a goodbye message, but the plane eventually landed in a field in Ripley, Mississippi about 45 miles Northwest of Tupelo, where the suspect was taken into custody.

Speaker 5: (01:33)
We jumped on our side by side to go see if we could help. And that’s when we saw the pilot come out of the plane and two police officers were already there waiting.

Speaker 3: (01:44)
He is being charged with grand larceny and making terroristic threats.

Christine Sloan: (01:48)
The Federal Aviation Administration is now coordinating with local law enforcement on the investigation. FAA records show the suspect had a student pilot certificate issued in 2013. Christine Sloan, ABC News, New York.