Man charged over threat to crash plane into Walmart

A pilot who threatened to crash his small plane into a Walmart supermarket in the US state of Mississippi has safely landed the aircraft, according to authorities. 

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves said on Twitter nearly six hours after the drama unfolded that the "situation has been resolved and that no one was injured."

What do we know so far?

The plane, reported to be a 7-11 seater Beechcraft King Air C90A, circled erratically over the city of Tupelo in northern Mississippi and a nearby area for several hours from about 5 a.m. local time (1000 GMT/UTC).

The pilot had called a 911 emergency operator "threatening to intentionally crash into Walmart on West Main," according to a statement from the city's police department.

The huge supermarket and a neighboring gas station were evacuated, and people were warned to stay away.

Police also cautioned that "with the mobility of an airplane of that type, the danger zone is much larger."

The plane later appeared to leave the Tupelo area and fly to the northwest, according to the FlightAware tracking website.

The plane then landed around 10:30 am local time northwest of the city of Ripley, about 45 miles (72 kilometers) from Tupelo.

An image on Twitter from the Starkville Daily News showed a small plane in a field.

The pilot, who has not been identified, has been arrested and faces charges of grand larceny and terrorist threats.

Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka told a news conference that the man didn't have a pilot's license but had been given some flight instruction and was an employee of Tupelo Aviation.

Quaka said he could also face federal charges.

No one was injured in the incident.

mm/wd (AP, AFP, Reuters)