UPDATE: Officials have identified the pilot of a plane that crashed Tuesday afternoon near Clinton, Ark.
According to Little Rock television station KARK, Robert Phillip Mathis, 68, of Corinth, Miss., was the only person on the six-passenger Beechcraft 58 Baron that went down between the Van Buren and Stone County line sometime around 2 p.m. That’s when Federal Aviation Administration officials said Mathis made a distress call regarding engine trouble.
Van Buren County Judge Dale James said a private aircraft and two National Guard Blackhawk helicopters flew over an area between Wrights Road and Angora Mountain Road yesterday and discovered a debris field.
Officials said traveling to the site took more than four hours, and the team had to go down a cliff to reach the wreckage.
Mathis was flying from Fayetteville. The FAA will handle the investigation and be on-site.
EARLIER:
Authorities are reporting a search is underway for a plane that apparently crashed near the Van Buren County/Stone County line Tuesday afternoon.
According to Van Buren County Judge Dale James, the search for the crash site shifted from Van Buren County to Stone County around 9 p.m. Tuesday. James earlier told Little Rock television station KTHV that it was believed that the pilot was the only person on the plane.
Federal Aviation Administration officials said the plane’s pilot called in distress with engine trouble around 2 p.m. According to Little Rock television outlet KARK, the plane was flying from a Fayetteville airport to Mississippi before it crashed.
This story is developing.
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