A 23-year-old man died Wednesday after the Cessna he was flying crashed.
Logan Timothy James, 23, of Stokesdale, North Carolina, flew from the ATP Flight School at Addison Airport near Dallas about 80 miles northeast until the plane crashed near the border between Oklahoma and Texas, according to KXAS-TV.
James was the only person aboard the single-engine Cessna 172 when it crashed at about 8:15 p.m. Wednesday. It left Addison Airport shortly before 7 p.m.
Police indicated that James took off without permission, meaning the plane was stolen from the school when it crashed.
James had been a student at ATP according to WFAA-TV.
James deliberately broke off communications as he took off.
“About right now you’ll probably realize that I’m not going to listen to y’all’s instructions and I’m just heading to East Texas,” he said.
“I’m going to pull the comm one circuit breaker and the comm two circuit breaker right here soon, as soon as I unkey the mic,” James told the control tower according to NBC.
He also offered an ominous commentary on his plans.
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“I’m climbing up through the clouds and then just gonna head outside of everything,” he said, according to the New York Post, citing audio obtained by VasAviation.
James earned his private pilot certificate on Dec. 24, according to Federal Aviation Administration data, the Post reported.
James’s father said his son had grown up in North Carolina and then graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas.
James had been hoping to become a commercial airline pilot, his father said, according to CBS.
Texas plane crash: Aircraft was stolen from Addison, DPS says | https://t.co/98EjaWSffR. https://t.co/ieGLhy1tBP
— TexasMom (@akkcrystal36) January 25, 2024
Retired Navy Capt. Armen Kurdian told KXAS that the motives behind taking the plane as well as the crash itself will be investigated.
“The accident investigation should hopefully answer a lot of those questions about why he got in there and probably interview anybody that he knew like parents, friends, that sort of thing,” Kurdian said.
The National Transportation Safety Board is the lead agency for the investigation, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
