The pilot of a small twin-engine plane threatened for several hours on Saturday to crash into a Walmart in Mississippi, in the southern United States, before finally landing and being arrested, local authorities said.
Around 5:00 a.m. (10:00 GMT), Tupelo police had been notified that the pilot of a plane was flying over this city of nearly 38,000 inhabitants, she said on her Facebook page.
“The pilot has contacted the emergency services and is threatening to intentionally crash into a Walmart,” the statement said without giving the pilot’s motives.
The plane finally landed at around 10:25 a.m. (3:25 p.m. GMT), and the pilot was taken into custody, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office, regarding an hour’s drive from Tupelo, told AFP.
According to flight-tracking site FlightAware, the aircraft was a Beechcraft King Air 90, an aircraft nearly 11m long and with a wingspan of just over 15m.
Mississippi emergency services were on alert all morning in the face of this situation described as “dangerous” by the Tupelo police, who asked residents to avoid the area.