JACKSON, Miss. — An airport employee who flew a stolen twin-engine aircraft erratically over north Mississippi for hours and threatened to crash right into a Walmart retailer has died in federal jail whereas awaiting trial, federal authorities stated Wednesday.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons stated in an announcement that Cory Wayne Patterson, 29, was discovered unresponsive Monday at a federal jail in Miami.
“Responding workers instantly initiated life-saving measures,” the assertion stated. “Workers requested emergency medical providers … and life-saving efforts continued. Mr. Patterson was subsequently pronounced deceased” by the emergency responders.
The assertion stated no workers or different inmates had been injured. Patterson had arrived on the jail in Miami on Thursday.
Patterson was from Shannon, Mississippi. Earlier than daybreak on Sept. 3, he took a twin-engine Beechcraft King Air C90A from the airport in Tupelo, Mississippi, the place he had a job fueling planes, police stated. He circled for 5 hours over unnerved Mississippian s earlier than ending the flight safely in a soybean subject close to Ripley, Mississippi.
Patterson was arrested after he landed the aircraft and was jailed on state costs of grand larceny and making terrorist threats.
He was arrested Sept. 14 and indicted days afterward federal costs of destruction of an plane and threats involving destruction of plane, court docket data present. Conviction on the primary cost would have carried as much as 20 years in jail and the second would have carried as much as 5 years.
A federal Justice of the Peace on Sept. 16 ordered a psychological analysis for Patterson, on the request of Patterson’s legal professional.
Federal court docket data embody a handwritten be aware from Patterson that an FBI agent testified he had discovered within the aircraft. Patterson wrote that he was sick of residing, in accordance with the court docket data.
“I picked Walmart as a result of it will be fast and straightforward to evacuate. I’m not taken with hurting anybody,” the be aware stated.
Patterson additionally wrote that Walmart is owned by billionaires who pay staff low wages and that insurance coverage would cowl any losses to the corporate.
Throughout Patterson’s flight, he known as 911 and stated he supposed to crash the aircraft right into a Walmart in Tupelo. He urged the emergency operator to get the shop evacuated, in accordance with court docket data.
