Pilot reported dead in plane crash

PATTONSBURG, Mo. — Search crews located the wreckage of a missing plane Tuesday morning near Pattonsburg in northern Daviess County.

Later that day, according to news reports, a Daviess County sheriff’s deputy confirmed that the pilot of the single-engine, fixed-wing aircraft, identified as Kenny Stoner, was dead.

National Transportation Safety Administration investigators are looking into the incident and reportedly arrived at the remote crash site early yesterday afternoon.

Gentry County Emergency Management Director Jim Boothe confirmed that crews were on the scene. There was no immediate word on the airplane’s condition.

More than 100 area first responders and law enforcement officers had been looking for the plane since Sunday evening after the Cessna 180 took off around 4 p.m. from Northwest Missouri Regional Airport just west of Maryville then failed to land in Bethany, its anticipated destination.

According Airport Manager Kevin Rankin the pilot initially indicated he wanted to buy fuel in Maryville, but then decided not to do so after being told the credit card machine was not working.

Rankin said the card could have been run by hand, but that the pilot decided not to refuel after all.

Officials reportedly do not believe fuel was a factor in the plane going down.

At least one search plane was deployed by the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Private pilots also took to the sky in an effort to locate the missing aircraft.

The patrol was joined in the search effort by personnel from Nodaway, Gentry, Daviess, and Harrison counties.

The Cessna 180 is a four- or six-seat airplane with fixed conventional landing gear that was produced between 1953 and 1981. Though the design is no longer in production, many of these planes are still in use as personal aircraft and in utility roles, such as bush flying.