US: Pilot arrested after landing plane on highway in Missouri

After the small plane he was piloting ran out of fuel, the pilot made an emergency landing on westbound Interstate 70 close to Oak Grove, according to a Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesperson. According to Sgt. Andy Bell, a highway police spokesman, the pilot was detained on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Minor wounds were treated at a hospital before he was sent there.

According to the arrest report, the pilot, a 35-year-old Prairie Village man, was detained on suspicion of DWI, reckless and careless behaviour that resulted in a crash, felony unlawful possession of a firearm, felony possession of a controlled substance, possession of less than 10 grammes of marijuana, and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

According to the FAA airmen's registration, the pilot holds a student pilot certificate that was awarded in January 2020. He is not allowed to transport people. According to the FAA's online aircraft registry, the Piper Cherokee single-engine aircraft is assigned to Warrior Aviation LC of Prairie Village.

According to Bell, the pilot is thought to have come from Florida and was on his way to Kansas City's Wheeler Downtown Airport. It appears that the flight was a return to Kansas City.

According to flightaware.com, a website that records aircraft, the jet took off from Wheeler Downtown Airport in Kansas City at 3 a.m. on Thursday and flew south to Florida.

According to flightaware.com, the aircraft made stops at a number of Florida airports, including Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport in Panama City and Daytona Beach International Airport.

The website picked up the plane near Corinth, Mississippi, between 10:20 and 10:45 p.m. on Thursday, tracked it to Sommerville, Tennessee, and picked it up again near Walnut Ridge, Arkansas, and Camdenton, Missouri, between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and 1:20 a.m. Friday.

It is unclear when the plane made its way back to the Kansas City area. The website picks up the plane once more at around 2:15 a.m., this time close to Warrensburg, Missouri. Up until 2:34 a.m., FlightAware monitored the flight, but as it got closer to Lee's Summit, both its height and speed decreased.

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