Police have also been able to begin talking with the pilot directly.
A plane has been circling over the US city of Tupelo, Mississippi, and the pilot has threatened to crash the aircraft into a Walmart store. Local media reports say the pilot is an airport employee.
Here's your 5-point cheat sheet to this big story
- BNO News reported the pilot has been identified as an airport employee who stole the Beech King Air C90 and took off from Tupelo, the birthplace of Elvis Aaron Presley.
- A statement from the Tupelo Police Department said the pilot of a plane flying over the city had contacted a 911 operator and was "threatening to intentionally crash into Walmart on West Main."
- It said police had evacuated the sprawling department store as well as a neighboring store "and disperse people as much as practical." Police have been in contact with the pilot, the statement said.
- A map from the FlightAware website showed what appeared to be the plane's course -- an erratic, zigzag pattern centered around Tupelo, a city of about 40,000.
- But the police statement cautioned that "with the motility of an airplane of that type, the danger zone is much larger."
