The man who kept Mississippi authorities on edge this Saturday for hours after threatening to crash his plane into a shopping center has been arrested, local authorities said.
The Daily Journal reported that the plane landed safely in a rural area, while CNN added that the plane had been stolen.
The alert was triggered at five in the morning local time, after the man, identified as Cory Patterson by local media, informed the emergency services that he planned to intentionally crash his aircraft into a Walmart department store.
The Police Department of the American city of Tupelo asked the population to avoid the area until further notice and warned that, due to the displacement capacity of a plane, the danger area extended beyond that city.
The aircraft showed erratic behavior for hours, with many circular movements, according to the flight tracking website flightaware. The US Federal Administration participated in monitoring the situation in coordination with the security forces, who pointed out that throughout the morning they had managed to get in touch with the pilot.
