TOWN OF MAPLE VALLEY, WI (WTAQ) — We’re learning more about a plane that took off from Texas that wound up crashing Wednesday night in a field in Oconto County.
At around 6:15 dispatchers received a call about a plane that appeared to be descending near Kelly Lake. It wound up crashing between county roads G and K in the Town of Maple Valley. The 67-year-old pilot, a man from Grand Prairie, Texas, was found dead in the wreckage.
“The plane had left an airfield in Texas and was supposed to land, I believe, in Missouri,” Oconto County Sheriff Todd Skarben told WTAQ. “It had gone off course.”
Over 500 miles off course, at that. That caught the attention of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, a bi-national defense effort between the US and Canada. NORAD dispatched fighter jets to monitor the plane after Federal Aviation Administration officials were unable to contact the pilot.
“The FAA has a lot of rules about how to operate aircraft,” Royal Canadian Air Force Major General and continental United States NORAD region Deputy Commander Derek Joyce said Thursday. “When an aircraft isn’t following those rules, that’s when we get interested.”
The presence of fighter aircraft led to plenty of emergency calls in Oconto County and led to a false rumor that an air force jet had gone down. Maj. Gen. Joyce says the the military response to the tragic incident was by-the-book.
“When there’s an aircraft of interest,” he explained,”Depending on the situation, we will utilize alert fighter aircraft we have across the United States to move to intercept and find out, essentially, what’s going on.”
When an aircraft of interest is reported, Joyce says fighter aircraft can respond quickly.
“It’s very quick. I can’t give the exact numbers for security reasons, but it’s very quick,” explained Joyce.
Sheriff Skarben says there was some difficulty in finding the aircraft once those on the ground lost sight of the plane.
“When you’re talking about cornfields and woods, a 200 yard area, or a quarter mile area is quite an area in our county,” said Skarben. “Especially at night, in the dark, to try to locate these things.”
Royal Canadian Air Force Major General and NORAD Deputy Commander Derek Joyce (NORAD)
FAA officials were still investigating the crash on Thursday.
“The preliminary investigation would, and based on other information we have gathered at this time, lead us to believe this was [the result of] a medical situation,” Skarben said.
An autopsy has been scheduled on the pilot to determine exactly what happened.
Whatever the situation, Maj. Gen. Joyce has but one word to describe it: tragic.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the pilot and his family on this tragic day,” Joyce said. ”
NORAD is based in Colorado and uses a network of radars, satellites and fighter aircraft to identify aircraft and determine the appropriate response.
