Vanishing plane sends authorities on hours-long search near North Carolina airport

A small plane that went missing earlier on Monday during what was supposed to be a 15-minute flight has been found after it crashed in Rowan County, North Carolina, near the airport where it took off.

The plane was recovered Monday evening and the pilot has been pronounced dead. The plane’s owner reported it missing when he arrived at Twin Lakes Airport to meet it, after authorizing a pilot to fly the aircraft from Statesville - only to find neither plane nor pilot at the destination. Civil Air Patrol and friends of the plane’s owner helped search for it.

The owner watched the plane depart around 9am Monday morning. Statesville Police Chief David Addison confirmed there was only one person aboard the missing plane and that several agencies participated in the air and ground search.