The student pilot who terrorised a community by flying for five hours while threatening to hit a Walmart store with a stolen plane posted a chilling goodbye message on his Facebook page.
Cory Paterson, 29, stole the light aircraft at around 5am before circling over Tupelo in Mississippi, US for hours.
He also threatened to intentionally crash the Beechcraft King Air 90 plane into a Walmart, it is alleged.
READ MORE: Police powerless as man hijacks plane 'and threatens to crash into supermarket'
Patterson posted on Facebook beforehand in an apparent goodbye message: "Sorry everyone. Never actually wanted to hurt anyone. I love my parents and sister this isn’t your fault. Goodbye."
After negotiators convinced the young man not to crash the plane intentionally, a private pilot had been talking Patterson through a proper landing, Tupelo Police Chief John Quaka revealed.
However, authorities said he aborted a planned landing at Tupelo Regional Airport after being around 100ft from the ground.
Patterson has since been arrested on charges of grand larceny and making terroristic threats. He had some flying experience but had never landed an aircraft.
Even still, despite 'some damage' the plane 'remains intact' after Patterson crash landed it nearby the airport.
During a press conference, Chief Quaka said: "Negotiations by Tupelo Police were made, and they were able to convince him to not carry out the deed and to land the aircraft.
"The pilot did not have experience to land an aircraft, so a private pilot helped us in gettin ghim to complete this, but upon final approach he aborted.
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"He posted on Facebook a message which in essence said 'goodbye'. He has been taken into custody and is currently being proicessed.
"We do anticipate that the federal government will proceed with federal charges. He did have contact with his family during the incident.
"We believe that he was very close to running out of fuel, according to expert pilots. He is an employee of Tupelo Aviation, located at the airport, he has access to aircrafts as that is his job."
Patterson contacted police regarding his intentions at 5:08am, before they lost communication with him for around two hours, until he contacted the negotiaton team to inform them he had landed and was uninjured.
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