Mississippi pilot injured as plane crashes short of runway

Published 4:44 pm Friday, July 5, 2019

A Mississippi man was injured Thursday after the plane he was piloting crashed.

Carroll County Emergency Management Director Ken Strachan tells The Greenwood Commonwealth that Walter J. Mitchell of Vaiden was flying the single-engine Beechcraft B23 Musketeer with three passengers — another man and two children — when it crashed about 50 yards from a grassy airstrip near Vaiden.

Strachan says Mitchell, a Democrat seeking election as a Carroll County supervisor, remained alert but was pinned in the aircraft.

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Strachan says emergency workers had to remove Mitchell’s seat to get him out.

Mitchell was taken by helicopter to a Jackson hospital.

Carroll County Sheriff Clint Walker says Mitchell’s injuries were not life-threatening.

The other three passengers, whom Walker didn’t name, were taken to a hospital with minor injuries.