Pilot dies after plane stolen in Addison crashes near Texas-Oklahoma border

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety, a tragic incident occurred Wednesday when a plane was stolen from Addison and subsequently crashed along the Texas-Oklahoma border, resulting in one fatality.

Authorities reported that a single-engine Cessna 172 was taken from the ATP Flight School at Addison Airport and flown more than 80 miles northeast toward Paris.

The pilot, identified as 23-year-old Logan Timothy James of Stokesdale, North Carolina, crashed at approximately 8:15 p.m. into a field near the Fannin and Lamar county lines, close to County Road 2180 and Farm-to-Market Road 79 between the towns of Telephone and Direct. James was the sole occupant of the aircraft.

Details regarding whether James issued a distress call or declared an emergency before the crash remain unclear.

An Air Traffic Control recording captured James stating, “I’m not going to listen to y’alls instructions. I’m just heading to East Texas. I’m going to pull the comm 1 circuit breaker and comm 2 circuit break soon as I unkey the mic.”

Addison Airport confirmed that the aircraft departed at 6:53 p.m. Wednesday.

Retired Navy Captain and aviation expert Armen Kurdian noted that the investigation will focus on determining the cause of the crash and why James was piloting the aircraft.

“The accident investigation should hopefully answer a lot of those questions about why he got in there and probably interview anybody that he knew like parents, friends, that sort of thing,” Kurdian stated. “And of course maybe some of the flight instructors at that school assuming he was actually attending that flight school as a student.”

The Texas DPS reported that the National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation, with assistance from the Federal Aviation Administration.