Investigators Confirm Pilot Ran Out Of Fuel Which Led To Plane Crash

OKTIBBEHA COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- The pilot of a small airplane is out of the hospital and is recovering after crashing in Oktibbeha County.

WCBI has confirmed the pilot is Robert Young from Texas.

According to the Federal Aviation Administration, Young’s plane ran out of fuel which led to the crash.

It was just before six o’clock Wednesday night when first responders said they got a call they’d lost contact with the aircraft.

As daylight broke over the crash site, many can’t believe that Young was able to walk away from crash unharmed.

“He’s very fortunate to be alive because the plane is destroyed,” said Rodney Lincoln, airport director at George M. Bryan Airport.

The Texas pilot was heading to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport when he started having trouble with his plane.

He then tried to redirect to George M. Bryan Airport in Starkville.

Carl Nuzzo, the Chief Instructor at Accessible Aviation, was able to talk to the pilot as the plane began to go down.

“I was on instrument training with a student and we were 12 miles shooting an instrument approach,” Nuzzo recalled. “We called up traffic to self-announce that we were coming in, and then he said he was ahead of us with a problem.”

The plane ran out of fuel and the engine suddenly quit.

Realizing the severity of the situation, Nuzzo and Young began discussing ways to safely land the plane.

“I said ok, I’ll stay up high and you go ahead in and I’ll stay out of your way,” Nuzzo described. “Then he said he might not make it and wanted to know if there’s any place to land short of the field, and I said no, you’ve got about half a mile on the clear way on the airport property, otherwise, there’s no place to go.”

“The pilot tried to put it down on the road but he said there’s a lot of traffic on the road, so he just averted over just a little bit and there with the trees,” said Lincoln.

Less than five minutes after losing power, Young crashed in the front yard on Old Highway 25.

Investigators on the scene said the situation could have ended much worse.

“In an airplane like that, you can get it slowed down,” Nuzzo explained. “He might’ve been 35-40 miles an hour, so it was not much more than a car crash and he had a seatbelt on so he’s still very lucky to be alive.”

The model of the aircraft is a 1965 Champion.

Young was flying from Texas to Mississippi to sell the plane.

Young is a Major in the United States Air Force.

The Federal Aviation Administration was on scene Wednesday morning.

They will collaborate with the National Transportation Safety Board to continue investigating the crash.