Pilot’s last words recorded before death in crashed plane stolen from Texas flight school
A student pilot flying a plane from a North Texas flight school told the air traffic controller he was headed to East Texas and abruptly cut off communication about an hour before crashing in an open field near the border with Oklahoma on Wednesday night.
The pilot, identified as Logan Timothy James in a Texas Department of Public Safety news release, took off from the Addison Airport near downtown Dallas in a plane owned by the ATP Flight School. He was ostensibly going up on a practice flight maneuver. Once airborne, he advised the air traffic controller he was “going to depart to the east,” according to audio from the flight published as a YouTube video on the VAS Aviation channel.
“About right now, you’ll probably realize that I’m not going to listen to y’all’s instructions,” James can heard saying.
The 23-year-old said he was flying to East Texas, and told the air traffic controller he was going to “unkey” the microphone and pull the Comm 1 and 2 circuit breakers, according to the recording.
“Say again,” the air traffic controller responds.
James doesn’t reply, and the controller tries to reestablish communication with him for the next 10 minutes, according to the audio.
The Cessna 172 Skyhawk traveled east and then north toward the Texas-Oklahoma border before crashing in an open field nine miles northeast of Telephone, Texas, in Fannin County according to the DPS news release. The crash site was about 80 miles away from where he took off.
James was the only one on board the plane, according to the release. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
According to a Federal Aviation Administration database, James was issued a private pilot certificate on Dec. 24.
ATP Flight School confirmed to KTVT-TV in a statement that the Cessna 172 was from the Addison training facility, but did not respond to questions about whether the plane was stolen and how that was able to happen.
ATP Flight School did not return a request from the Star-Telegram for comment.
James’ father told KTVT that the 23-year-old had grown up in North Carolina and graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas.
He was “a wonderful son, with a gentle and loving spirit,” his father said.
According to James’ LinkedIn profile, he studied Geospatial Information Science at UTD.
“After I graduate at UTD, I plan to go to flight school and work to earn a spot flying for a legacy carrier, such as Delta, American, or FedEx,” he wrote on the social media profile.
James began training at ATP Flight School in June, his father told KTVT.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.
This story was originally published January 25, 2024 at 11:30 AM.
